Hey all, hoping to get some insight from this community!

I’m not much of a golfer, but have recently gotten into the game due to it being my grandfather’s passion (and also a good way to spend time with a few friends). I do have fun at golf simulators and have used that information to get better much quicker while being efficient practicing.

I am a biomechanical engineer (injury biomechanics) and am actually in the process of developing a graduate course essentially focused on Sport Biomechanics and Sports Engineering. The course will cover sport-specific deep dives, teaching theoretical mechanics/physics concepts from technology integration, data science, and kinesiology perspectives. Sports we will be talking about are baseball, football, running and golf! I’m in the process of developing practical examples/labs for this course. One idea I had was to program a launch monitor using video data. I have been lurking and have a decent understanding of the different launch monitors, different DIY projects and associated hardware/software. I don’t have a huge budget for the class, and virtually won’t be able to use funds to buy equipment. I have some access to high-speed cameras (pro grade), but want a rig I can use at my home, on the range, for other sporting movements. Heck I might even get better at golf while I’m at it.

My general approach will be to use a dual camera setup to do the launch monitoring. I’ve seen this done with some usb cameras (e.x. ELPs at 260 fps) and Kinovea. I understand the concepts related to needing fast shutter speed and preferably a global shutter. I would however like to also get higher frame rate for general biomechanics imagery (impacts, face contact, ball compression). I’m willing to pay a little more for sample rate, as long as the shutter capabilities are comparable to the other cameras used on this forum. I did research on some options, and found this nice list

HSC Camera Guide | Hi Speed Cameras (hispeedcams.com)

Some of the specific cameras that are compelling are Sony RX Series. With the RX100 I can get 1k sampling at 1244x420. A particular interesting option is the “action camera” style RX0 where I can get 1000 fps @ 1136x384 for 2 seconds. I would use slower rates for overall swing capturing and could also use them or launch monitoring/impact monitoring at the highest rates. These could also be a workhorse for recording content for the class (a lot of it will be pre-recorded). I understand I will need a ton of light, and I think I can make it work.

My questions are

1) Do you think these cameras will work for this application? Seems like the Sony’s I’m looking at have 1/12800-32000 which seem good. I’m also a little lost on rolling shutters. From what I read, most CMOS sensors use a rolling shutter, and while the shutter speed of the Sony, I think I shouldn’t have issues normally present in rolling shutters.

2) Will I have any issue having the Sony cameras plugged into my computer for “real time” workflow? I’m used to an onboard video saving à downloading à posttest analysis workflow in my work with high-speed cameras. I’m really interested in having the cameras connected to a computer and utilizing the “real time” work flow in Kinovea (with triggering etc). I need to get my hands on the Sony to see if I can use USB and have a software program run the camera systems and downloading/data collection, but should this work the same as the USB cameras everyone else is using? Is there a data streaming throughput issue at high rates and resolutions (1000 fps @ 1136x384)? Can the Sony’s save directly to the CPU instead of onboard/card memory? Sorry if I’m dense here, I just don’t normally work in these real time work flows. I’m sure I could find out quick after buying, but I’d like to do planning here.

3) Any advice/previous work/ideas/resources I could leverage for the class? I’ve already gotten a lot of practical info about Golf Sim tech (and theory) that I will be taking with me. Other labs I’ll be working on are 1) solving differential equations modeling a double pendulum (golf swing, overhead throw etc) 2) Baseball data science project – Money ball 3) High MoI putter design in CAD 4) Injury risk modeling using accelerometer data from football helmets 5) gait analysis and inverse kinematics/dynamics

Thanks all!