technical help to select a distance sensor for high speed object

Hi all,

I am looking some technical help to select a distance sensor that can measure the distance of a soccer ball in a controlled indoor environment. I need a sensor that will be able to tell me what height a soccer ball passed over at when kicked from a few feet away. Soccer balls travel at up to 35mph, can anyone recommend an Infrared or ultrasonic sensor that could "see" the ball in this short time and measure its distance???

Ta

Actually there are several quite sophisticated products available which do this sort of thing for...... <wait for it>..... yes! Golfers!
Maybe one such device could be adapted for your use ?

Here's some links about what i mean--
http://flightscope.com/
**broken link removed**

I suspect these are quite expensive. I don't know if they can be directly used for soccer balls, and if not it's unlikely the vendor will make the mods without an equally hefty fee. But hey... you can try !

On the flip side, I myself had experimented with designing a similar product for use by tennis players, cricketers, football, whatever. But at a much lower cost and without so many bells'n'whistles. Ultrasonics, pinging, doppler, etc etc.

So if you only looking for technical help, then i could help.

For your specfic question - the answer is Yes. Ultrasonics can be used quite effectively.

Microwave Doppler radars on the market work well but only in open space. If your problem is only to find ball height, I would use an infrared or visible-light "screen" made by a row of e.g laser pointers mounted on a long vertical pole. A similar pole with photodiodes will have to be located also vertically across the field, so each photodiode responds to a particular laser pointer.
You can simplify the structure by using mirrors, etc. but the reading of the photodiodes can be recorded by a memory, so it can be determined which "line" was hit at what height.
Experts in TV technology may know how to read ball position from a camera recording, you can locate a "grid" of lines defining height above ground so the camera can follow all path while also recording height markers.