This invention simulates the effect of having a television camera inside a golf ball during its flight through the air from the tee, towards the green. The television images of the landing zone seen by the viewer should be similar to the television images produced by Cruise missiles during the Gulf and Kosovo campaigns.

Essentially, this invention is a cunning optical trick, designed to produce impressive visual effects. Briefly, here's how it works: A set of golf ball detecting, radar units alongside the fairway are linked to a computer, which calculates the successive positions of an ordinary golf ball, with no camera inside it, as it travels through the air. A short computer programme, based on the Physics of golf ball flight, then predicts where the golf ball will land. The computer programme also works out which part of the landing zone would be seen if there really had been a camera inside the ball. The programme then looks at an electronically stored picture of the whole of the area around the green and displays on your television screen, just that part of the area which it predicts the imaginary camera would see. The system updates the displayed picture, several times each second. By keeping the Physics simple (well, what your average rocket scientist would call simple, anyway) and deliberately not allowing for wind, ball spin etc. an exciting set of dynamic images is produced.

Patent No. GB2269288

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