GOATY Troubleshooting: Complete Guide to Fixing Detection and Tracking Issues

GOATY uses your phone or tablet camera to track 33 body landmarks in real time. When the system works well, it evaluates your swing and delivers coaching cues within seconds. When it struggles, the cause is almost always one of four things: camera position, lighting, clothing, or browser settings. This guide covers every known issue and its fix.

Camera Setup

Position: Place your phone 6-8 feet away, at waist height, with the camera pointing at your front (face-on view). The entire body from head to feet must be visible in the frame. If the system cannot see your full body, it cannot track landmarks accurately.

Stability: Use a phone tripod or lean the phone against a stable surface. Hand-held recording introduces movement that confuses the pose detection system.

Orientation: Portrait mode is recommended for most phone setups. The system handles both portrait and landscape, but portrait provides better vertical coverage of the full body.

Lighting Requirements

GOATY works indoors and outdoors, but lighting is the number one cause of tracking failures. The system needs to see your body clearly against the background.

• Avoid backlighting. Never stand with a window or bright light behind you. The camera sees your body as a dark silhouette and cannot identify landmarks.
• Add frontal light. A simple LED panel or desk lamp in front of you dramatically improves tracking accuracy indoors.
• Avoid extreme contrast. Dark clothing against a dark background reduces landmark detection accuracy. Wear clothing that contrasts with your background.

Calibration Issues

Calibration stuck or failing: This usually means the system cannot detect enough high-confidence landmarks. Check that your full body is visible and lighting is adequate. Try moving closer to or further from the camera.

Calibration resets between swings: This can happen if you move significantly between swings. Stay in approximately the same position between reps for best results.

Swing Detection Problems

GOATY does not detect my swing: The swing detection system looks for specific movement patterns (backswing loading, downswing sequence). If your swing is very slow or very abbreviated, it may not trigger detection. Try making a fuller swing with moderate speed.

GOATY detects non-swings: Walking, bending to pick up a ball, or large arm movements can trigger false detections. Stay relatively still between swings and make deliberate practice swings when you are ready.

Audio and Voice Coaching

Cannot hear GOATY's voice: Check that your phone volume is turned up and not on silent/vibrate mode. On iOS, the mute switch on the side of the phone must be off. On Android, make sure media volume (not just ringer volume) is up.

Voice cuts out during session: This can happen on Android devices when the browser is in the background or the screen dims. Keep the browser in the foreground and adjust screen timeout settings to stay awake during practice.

Browser Compatibility

• Best: Safari on iOS, Chrome on Android
• Good: Chrome on iOS, Firefox on Android
• Known issues: Brave browser on Android can crash after multiple swings due to memory pressure. Switch to Chrome if experiencing crashes.