A Performance Analysis System for the Sport of Bowling
A Performance Analysis System for the Sport of Bowling
A Performance Analysis System for the Sport of Bowling
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
1.3.2 Product Development Phase<br />
The product development phase will put to practice <strong>the</strong> discoveries from <strong>the</strong> feasibility<br />
phase, both in refinement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> SMARTDOT module's capabilities, and in <strong>the</strong><br />
development <strong>of</strong> a PC-based (and possibly a PDA-based) GUI s<strong>of</strong>tware application <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
end-user. The major tasks <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> development phase will be to:<br />
• Refine <strong>the</strong> operation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> SMARTDOT sensor module to generalize its design<br />
and per<strong>for</strong>mance <strong>for</strong> a wide range <strong>of</strong> bowlers. Such refinements will be derived<br />
from <strong>the</strong> analysis <strong>of</strong> data ga<strong>the</strong>red in <strong>the</strong> feasibility phase <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> development, as<br />
well as from data collected during additional testing by o<strong>the</strong>r bowlers.<br />
• Develop a GUI-based s<strong>of</strong>tware application that interacts with <strong>the</strong> SMARTDOT<br />
module, and uploads, catalogs, analyzes, and presents <strong>the</strong> data in a <strong>for</strong>m useful to<br />
<strong>the</strong> bowler. This application could take two <strong>for</strong>ms: a full-featured, PC-hosted,<br />
Windows ® -based application, and a compact PDA-based application.<br />
1.4 OVERVIEW OF THE FEASIBILITY PHASE<br />
The SMARTDOT system consists <strong>of</strong> a custom hardware module integrated with custom<br />
embedded s<strong>of</strong>tware that interacts with a PC-based user application through a (currently)<br />
custom wireless communications device. The "intelligence" <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> SMARTDOT system<br />
is distributed across two portions <strong>of</strong> s<strong>of</strong>tware: <strong>the</strong> SMARTDOT module embedded<br />
s<strong>of</strong>tware, and <strong>the</strong> PC-hosted MASTER application.<br />
The SMARTDOT module is designed to collect sufficient data with a fine enough<br />
granularity that <strong>the</strong> MASTER s<strong>of</strong>tware can per<strong>for</strong>m accurate and meaningful analysis <strong>of</strong><br />
that data. The paper discusses <strong>the</strong> design assumptions, constraints, capabilities, and<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> in-situ data collection module, and <strong>the</strong> underlying assumptions and<br />
techniques used to analyze and present <strong>the</strong> data in <strong>the</strong> MASTER s<strong>of</strong>tware, as well as <strong>the</strong><br />
conclusions drawn from <strong>the</strong> analysis <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> data acquired in this phase <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> project, and<br />
suggestions <strong>for</strong> fur<strong>the</strong>r development.<br />
The key to <strong>the</strong> feasibility <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> system was <strong>the</strong> initial development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> in-situ sensor<br />
module. Without <strong>the</strong> means to ga<strong>the</strong>r sensor data from <strong>the</strong> perspective <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> ball,<br />
development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> remainder <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> system would have been extraneous. Consequently,<br />
<strong>the</strong> feasibility portion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> project encompassed <strong>the</strong>se distinct stages:<br />
• Designing and building a viable hardware plat<strong>for</strong>m <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> in-situ SMARTDOT<br />
sensor module and implementing <strong>the</strong> COMM wand hardware.<br />
• Developing <strong>the</strong> embedded s<strong>of</strong>tware <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> SMARTDOT module, including <strong>the</strong><br />
communications protocol between <strong>the</strong> module and <strong>the</strong> MASTER application. This<br />
portion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> feasibility phase is presented in Section II, "Collecting <strong>the</strong> Data -<br />
The SMARTDOT Module".<br />
• Analyzing <strong>the</strong> data <strong>the</strong> module collected in order to reveal <strong>the</strong> types <strong>of</strong> useful<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation that could be extracted from that data. To that end, <strong>the</strong> MASTER<br />
program was developed, which has served as <strong>the</strong> preliminary communications,<br />
data analysis, and presentation application. Section III, "Analyzing <strong>the</strong> Data - The<br />
MASTER Application", presents this portion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> feasibility phase in detail.<br />
5