Just out of curiosity.. Does it measure the speed of the shuttle after leaving the face of the racket? Or over a certain distance? Cause I'd imagine that the shuttle's speed would slow down after a while..
On the big tv screen in the stadium, they showed "the fastest shot", so I guesse this sensor measures any moving object passing it in a very precise way, and shows the fastest speed in the rally period. So in general it should be the speed right after the racket, well, unless the player is even faster than the birdie!!
It measure the fastest speed pick up by the radar, period. Unless a fly can go faster than 300 km/hr, then the next fastest object is the shuttle This the same way the cop pull u over for speeding and write down the fastest recorded speed on the speeding ticket.
ok. thanks for the info. Now I got it. Was wondering how they actually measure the speed. So many factors to consider. Now it all make sense.
I think the fastest object would be the tip of the racquet head, just before the point of contact with the shuttle.
what about light? And a horse fly has been reported to travel faster than the speed of sound, though, I think its a hoax...
To my best understanding - it is the shuttle that goes the fastest and it happens at the moment of bouncing off the string. Still interesting how accurate these things are... They probably do not give speed more than it is, but they may underscore the actual speed.
If there is speed detector, I wonder why line detector is not installed (like those used for tennis). Is it due to technical difficulties ?
Setting up the sensors must be complicated. I was sitting courtside next to the guy who was tracking the speeds and it took him a couple of days during the early rounds to get things working right: problems with the connections between the sensors and software in the hall and the equipment in the trailer outside. Like cables coming loose in trailer, or connected incorrectly, all of which took time to find and fix. Once they got the system working it was awesome. They actually capture everything above a threshold speed, in this tournament 90 miles per hour, and place a date/time stamp on the speed logged. They set up the software to identify only the fastest shot in the rally, and put up the most important ones on the screen. The guy is an Aussie and set up his equipment at the Sudirman Cup in Beijing. I wish I had more time to talk with him about it, but he was really busy.
Actually, the Cyclops they used in Tennis is for service only. Since badminton players move around (often on top of the line) during a serve or point, Cyclops will not be practical. If you put senser on the tape, can you tell if it is player steps on the tape or the shuttle hits the tape?
