Could the garmin r50 technically be able to calculate and show a diagram of face impact location rather than just the impact video. The current impact video (just about) allows you to make out if you've hit the ball high or low on the club face but you can't judge if you're missing the sweet spot on the toe or heel. What measurements are other launch monitors using to provide face impact location - eg Mevo+ or Gen2, GC3, or the unreleased Square Omni.
Gemini: Yes, the Garmin R50 is almost certainly technically capable of this.
Because the R50 already captures high-speed "Impact Video" clearly enough for you to see the ball compressing against the face, the hardware (cameras) has done the hard part. Converting that video into a specific data point (e.g., "5mm Toe, 2mm High") or a heat map diagram is primarily a software and image-processing challenge, not a hardware limitation.
The R50 uses a triscopic (3-camera) system. This is very similar to the technology used by the Foresight GC3 (Bushnell Launch Pro), which is the gold standard for camera-based impact location.
The Hardware is Ready: The R50 has cameras looking directly at the impact zone. If it can record a video where you can visually see the impact, the camera resolution and frame rate are likely high enough for a computer vision algorithm to identify the center of the ball and the center of the clubface (defined by the fiducial stickers) and calculate the difference.
The Data is There: To measure "Face Angle" and "Club Path" (which the R50 does), the device is already tracking the clubhead's orientation in 3D space. Impact location is simply the intersection of the ball and that 3D club face.
The Garmin R50 is essentially a "sleeping giant" for this feature. It has the eyes (cameras) to see the impact just like the Foresight GC3 or Square Omni.
If Garmin releases a software update that runs image processing on those impact videos, they could add a Face Impact Location diagram. The fact that they already require reflective stickers for club data makes this even more feasible, as those stickers help the camera lock onto the clubface orientation.
