The Tennis Ball Problem

Cheng, Kell (2000) The Tennis Ball Problem. Canadian Industrial Problem Solving Workshops > 4th IPSW [Edmonton 29/5/2000 - 3/6/2000].

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Abstract/Summary

Stereoscopic vision is a well-established phenomenon: biological evolution showed its utility in ancient times. In this workshop, we have examined some subtleties and limitations in applying this old concept to an entirely new application: with modern technology, we attempt to track the position of an early segment of a flying object, and then extrapolate its later trajectory.

Item Type:	Study Group Report
Study Group:	Canadian Industrial Problem Solving Workshops > 4th IPSW [Edmonton 29/5/2000 - 3/6/2000]
Company Name:	VisionSmart
Industrial Sector:	None/Other
Additional Contributors:	Bona, Andrej and Bose, Chris and Engler, Wolgan and Gong, Minglun and Guyot, Cyril and Ivanescu, Christian and King, John and Kenway, Dan and Krislock, Nathan and Laflamme, Claude and Malill, Abid M. and Pillai, Suresh and Savu, Anamaria and Ting, Fridolin and Tomoda, Satoshi
ID Code:	166
Deposited By:	Michele Taroni
Deposited On:	07 October 2008

Problem Statement

Imagine that you wish to track the location of a tennis ball in space using just two cameras. Each camera produces a two-dimensional image at discrete time intervals, and these images are in fact composed of discrete pixels. The problems are:

1. How do we account for the inevitable distortions in the cameras?
2. How do we use our imperfect discrete data to best estimate the actual path?
3. Can we take into account the spin of the ball?

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