From Machine Vision to Golf: Helgi Hjálmarsson Brings Technology Experience to the Game

From Machine Vision to Golf: Helgi Hjálmarsson Brings Technology Experience to the Game

Years of developing advanced technology for food processing meet a personal interest in golf at ELVA. For Helgi Hjálmarsson, the opportunity to apply that experience in a new field was a compelling reason to get involved.

Opportunities for innovation often emerge when knowledge from one industry meets a challenge in another. That connection helps explain Helgi Hjálmarsson’s route into ELVA. Having developed machine vision and AI-based systems for food processing, he saw an opportunity to apply his experience to understanding golfers’ movements and supporting golf training.

Helgi brought extensive experience in technology development and entrepreneurship to the project. In 2003, he founded Valka, a company developing equipment and software for fish processing. Its work focused on applying technology to practical production challenges and creating equipment that could operate in demanding everyday environments. Valka’s background in the New Business Venture Fund’s annual report

Developing such systems means connecting a measurement with a useful action. Information needs to serve a particular task, arrive at the right time and work within the environment where the equipment is used. That thinking also has a place in golf, although the setting and the user’s needs are different.

At its core, machine vision uses computing technology to extract information from images. An image becomes material for analysis and measurement. For developers, this creates opportunities to examine characteristics and movement in ways that conventional video alone cannot provide. The next challenge is deciding which information matters to the person using it.

In golf, that question becomes practical very quickly. A player wants to understand what happens during their swing, while a coach needs to explain what they observe. Measurements can contribute to that conversation, but their presentation needs to relate to the task being explored. A number on a screen becomes more useful when the golfer understands which movement it describes and why the coach has chosen to examine it.

Golf was also a personal interest for Helgi. The opportunity to apply his technical experience to the sport brought together two motivations: his enjoyment of playing golf and his interest in developing advanced solutions capable of changing how an industry works. He describes getting involved as an easy decision once that opportunity became clear.

This background brings a particular perspective to product development. Helgi’s experience includes turning technical ideas into products that people need to use and rely on. At the same time, he knows golf as a player. Developing a system for the sport means bringing those perspectives together: what the technology can measure and how that measurement helps the golfer using it.

ELVA uses cameras to capture information about body and club movement without attaching measurement equipment to the golfer. The system combines video, movement data and three-dimensional visualisation that coaches and players can use to examine a swing. This gives the technical processing a practical purpose within the training environment. About the ELVA system

It also means considering the experience around the measurement. How does a practice session begin? What does the golfer need to see first? Which information helps the coach explain the task? Questions like these connect product development with golf instruction. They concern how results become an understandable part of practice.

Helgi is now ELVA’s CEO and one of its co-founders. His background in engineering, innovation and business development contributes to a team with experience in biomechanics, software and golf coaching. Developing the system brings these different areas of expertise together around a shared challenge. ELVA’s founders and management team

His move from food processing technology into golf illustrates how experience built in one field can find a new purpose. Knowledge of machine vision and artificial intelligence provided the technical foundation for recognising the opportunity. His interest in golf gave him a reason to explore it further.

At ELVA, that work serves a clear goal: making information about the golf swing accessible and useful to players and coaches. It is where Helgi’s technology experience and his enthusiasm for the game meet—in a project connecting measurement, understanding and practice.