Measuring vertical jump height using a smartphone camera with simultaneous gravity-based calibration

Vertical jump height is an important tool to measure athletes’ lower body power in sports science and medicine. Several different methods exist to measure jump height, but each has its own limitations. This work proposes a novel way to measure jump height directly, using optical tracking with a single smartphone camera. A parabolic fall trajectory is obtained from this video by tracking a single feature. The parabolic trajectory is then used to partially calibrate the camera and convert pixel measurements into real-world units, allowing the calculation of the achieved height. Comparison to an optical motion capture system yields promising results.