240fps Camera Physics
Place your phone. Hit an orange ball. Hear your speed. No radar. No external sensors. Just physics and color.
42.67mm
Every golf ball ever made. The diameter hasn’t changed since 1990. It’s the one constant in a game full of variables.
240 frames per second
Your iPhone captures a new image every 4.17 milliseconds. At that speed, nothing is invisible. Not even a golf ball at 150 mph.
Faster ball, longer streak
At 240fps, a golf ball in flight becomes a blur. The length of that blur is proportional to speed. Known diameter calibrates the math. Speed becomes visible.
Just physics and color
Orange sits on the opposite side of the color spectrum from green. Even as a faint blur at 150 mph, the color signal is unmistakable. The club, the turf, the background: none of them register.
76 mph · 22° · 142 yards
Ball speed from motion blur. Launch angle from streak geometry. Carry distance from aerodynamics. No radar, no external sensors.
You hear it before you see it
The app announces your speed out loud. Your Apple Watch taps your wrist. You never look at the screen. Place the next ball. ‘Ready.’ Swing again.
The phone already has everything it needs.
Acuvis Golf — $149, no hardware, no subscription.
See how it worksThe Physics
At 240 frames per second, a golf ball in flight creates a blur streak. Faster ball, longer streak. Acuvis Golf measures the streak. The ball's known diameter (42.67mm, unchanged since 1990) calibrates the math. The ball's color separates it from everything else in the frame.
No radar. No external sensors. Just physics and color.
Why colored balls?
We could have made it work with any ball. It would have been less accurate. We chose accurate.
Acuvis uses the color channel where certain colors are maximally separated from green. Orange sits furthest from turf on that scale. It's the clearest signal we can get, and it's what we've built around. As long as you're using the same model of matte orange ball session to session, every shot is measured against a known baseline.
The color science suggests matte red and pink balls should work too. They land in the same high-Cr region of the spectrum. We haven't validated them yet, but they're next on our testing list.
White balls are a different story. White doesn't provide enough color contrast for reliable measurement. It's too close to the club face, the sky, and reflections on the mat. We could have fudged it and shipped white ball support with lower accuracy. We didn't.
Start with orange. Maxfli StraightFli Matte Orange gives us the cleanest signal we've measured.
Ball Compatibility
Orange
Verified
- Maxfli StraightFli Matte Orange
- Callaway Supersoft Matte Orange
Red
Expected — not yet tested
- Callaway Supersoft Matte Red
- Vice Pro Soft Red
Pink
Expected — not yet tested
- Vice Pro Neon Pink
- Volvik Vivid Pink
Use the same model of orange ball each session for the most consistent results. Red and pink should work based on the color science but haven't been validated yet.
Everything you need
Your iPhone
Recent Pro model with 240fps camera
A small tripod
Any phone tripod works — ~$20
Orange golf balls
Matte orange. We recommend Maxfli StraightFli. ~$20/dozen
Total setup under $190 — less than one-third the cost of the cheapest hardware launch monitor.
What We Measure
Ball speed
Direct measurement from motion blur analysis
Measures ball speeds from 20 to 200 mph. Every club from a soft chip to the fastest driver you'll ever swing.
Launch angle
Direct measurement from streak geometry
Carry distance
Calculated from speed, angle, and aerodynamic model
Apex height
Calculated from speed and angle
What We Don't Measure
Spin rate. We do not display spin because we do not measure it directly. Some launch monitors estimate spin from ball flight data or surface imaging — each approach involves different accuracy tradeoffs, and the best systems do it remarkably well. We chose to show only what our camera directly captures, so every number on your screen is grounded in what was actually measured.
Lateral direction is estimated from streak geometry, not directly measured. We show it when confidence is high and suppress it when it's not.
Does it work with white golf balls?
No. Acuvis uses your iPhone's color detection to separate the ball from the club, the mat, the net, and the background. White doesn't provide enough color contrast for reliable measurement. We tested it extensively and the honest answer is that we can't get the accuracy we require. Orange gives the camera a signal that nothing else in the scene can mimic.
Set Up Your Bag
Add your clubs with their loft angles. Acuvis Golf uses your bag setup to power Club Gapping sessions and track per-club stats across every practice.