Sports analysis and testing system

Claim 1

A baseball bat performance and testing system, comprising: a pitching machine operative to pitch a ball to a batter; a plurality of high-speed digital video cameras, each operative to record the pitch and hit of the ball by the batter from a different perspective, including at least one rear-view video camera positioned generally behind the batter having a field of view in substantial alignment with the ball in trajectory from the pitching machine, and at least one side-view video camera having a field-of-view positioned to observe the pitch and hit of the ball from a side-view perspective; a computer interfaced to the video cameras, the computer including means for synchronizing images taken by the rear-view camera with those taken by the side-view camera to assist in determining the location of the ball as a function of time in three dimensions; and an application software program resident on the computer to generate the baseball bat performance statistics as a function of pitch, hit, and bat swing.

Claim 11

A method of analyzing the performance of a baseball bat, comprising the steps of: providing a programmed computer having a display and a memory for storing performance statistics; pitching a ball to the batter using a pitching machine; providing a first high-speed digital video camera positioned generally behind the batter to image the ball in trajectory from the pitching machine and the batted ball according to a first perspective; providing a second high-speed digital video camera to image the pitched ball and batted ball from a side-view; synchronizing the images from the first and second video cameras so as to track the pitch and hit in three-dimensional space; developing a database of batter performance statistics based upon the tracking of the pitch and hit of the ball; and displaying a portion of the database in response to an operator request, including a visual representation of the batter during a swing.

Claim 12

A method of analyzing the performance of a baseball bat, comprising the steps of: providing a programmed computer having a display and a memory for storing performance statistics; pitching a ball to the batter using a pitching machine; providing a first high-speed digital video camera positioned generally behind the batter to image the ball in trajectory from the pitching machine and the batted ball according to a first perspective; providing a second high-speed digital video camera to image the pitched ball and batted ball from a side-view; synchronizing the images from the first and second video cameras so as to track the pitch and hit in three-dimensional space; developing a database of batter performance statistics based upon the tracking of the pitch and hit of the ball; and displaying a portion of the database in response to an operator request, including a visual representation of the batter during a swing.