The FieldersChoice

The FieldersChoice is the class project for SIE-454/554a for the fall of 2008.

This paper explains our model for fielders' fielding the ball. Dave's sweet spot paper

Here is the definitive paper about baseball and softball pop-ups. Why are pop-ups hard to catch?

This paper explains the right-hand rules that are used to determine the direction of the spin-induced deflection of the ball.

This paper has all of the equations for the ball in flight chapter in Ghista's book

This is a DOS program for the ball in flight. flyBall DOS program To run it, copy it down to a convenient directory. Go to the "Start" button on your Windows computer. Chose "All programs," Accessories," "Command Prompt." Navigate to where you put flyBall and type flyBall. Follow the directions in the program. After the program plots the figure (you probably cannot print it with that command) press the enter key to clear the screen. When you are done type "exit."

Here are my design documents for the fall 2008 project, the FieldersChoice.

Norm Chouinard is our Sponsor. He has suggested that the papers of the 1st Annual Pitch F/X Summit might be useful. The link for the event is: http://sportvision.com/events/pfx.html Here is a simple minded-explanation for the camera systems in the major league stadiums Pitch FX. In particular he sent this presentation by Matt Thomas. He wrote, Looks like many of the ideas that we have discussed. Not sure why he has not considered using 2 or more cameras to largely eliminate the distance error problems he mentions. Also he does not seem to offer much in terms of measuring fielding range of coverage (measurements of reaction, path, and speed) that would apply apply to all fielders (with Pitcher and Catcher adjustments due to their unique starting positions).

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This site is maintained by A. Terry Bahill. It was last changed on December 16, 2008.