French racket manufacturer Babolat said it will soon roll out a new product that incorporates MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) sensors, enabling users to know how well -- or poorly -- they hit the ball. Known as Babolat Play & Connect, the new racket is expected to reach the market early next year.
"With this technology, you'll know the moment of impact, the impact location, and the position of the racket," Sam Guilaumè, CEO of Movea, which created the data fusion systems for the new racket, told us. "It knows how the racket is moving before and after the impact, whether you hit the ball in the center of the racket, and whether you're [imparting] a backspin or forward spin."
Babolat's Play & Connect racket will incorporate MEMS sensors and Bluetooth wireless as a means of gathering information and sending it to a display. (Source: Movea)
Movea has incorporated MEMS-based intelligence on 10 prototype rackets for Babolat. Typically, the new rackets employ two to four MEMS-based sensors in the shaft, along with a small printed circuit board, microcontroller (8 bit or 16 bit), analog-to-digital converter, power management IC, and a Bluetooth transceiver. Because the racket is still months away from production, Movea would not tell Design News what kind of MEMS sensors are being used or who manufactures any of the electronics.
The new racket will employ the MEMS sensors to analyze the impact of the ball striking the racket and the trajectory of the racket, before and after the impact. It will then employ onboard algorithms to analyze the sensor signals, deduce characteristics of the shot, and send its conclusions via Bluetooth wireless to a nearby tablet computer or large screen display.
Guilaumè said that Movea has invested "several man-years" of effort into the specifics of the racket's data analysis techniques. The racket's techniques, in turn, are built atop the company's existing SmartMotion data fusion technology, which is the product of more than 350 "man-years" of development and 400-plus patents. Elements of SmartMotion are also employed in set-top boxes, smartphones, and sports equipment.
Pricing of the new smart rackets isn't yet known, but expectations are for it to be about $100 more than conventional high-end tennis rackets, which typically sell for $150 to $200. Babolat's goal is for the new rackets to be purchased by amateur tennis players, as well as pros.
Movea expects the new breed of rackets to be used by players who are serious about their games. Guilaumè told us:
You won’t use it while you're playing, but after you finish a game, you may want to go back with your coach and do a post-analysis. And you'll be able to know if your forehand is stronger today than it was a week ago.
What a great idea. I think people will gravitate to this like hot cakes. Reminds me of what people pay big bucks to do when they go to those virtual reality instructional venues to get their golf swing analyzed. This seems like it would do the same thing, for far less money and far more consistently. I would think golf clubs would be another natural place to leverage MEMS sensors and perhaps even baseball bats for serious players.
Would be interesting to see the user interface to view the data. After a couple sets, there would be a lot of information to digest. Amazing how this technology is bringing intelligence to sporting equipment. Thanks, Chuck.
A tennis racket that helps you improve your forehand and backhand, and also adjust your spin? What a neat idea. I just hope that the system is as fine-tuned as it must be to work well and give accurate, usable information instead of just tons of raw data. I'd think you could get a lot more data, and more accurate information, with motion capture devices like those used for virtual reality and in the movies.
I agree with you, Ann - this sounds like a really cool idea but it must be a HUGE challenge to interpret the data accurately and so that it is immediately useful. I am also wondering about the ruggedness of the sensors and associated electronics and if it would have a psychological effect on the person's play knowing they were there...
I also see your point about motion capture devices. I usually ask someone to video me when I am trying to understand something unusual going on when I am riding my horse - it is amazing what I can see in a video that I can also freeze for problem solving. It will be interesting to see how these tennis rackets "play" out! (pardon the pun LOL)
As an avid tennis player myself, I am not sure how helpful this would be in improving one's game... You need to be able to hit a stroke and analyze it right away in order to make corrections. A video of your play is absolutely THE best way to do this. Simply seeing an aggregation of data (or even strok-by-stroke data) about your strokes will just tell you where you are hitting the ball by and large and MAY indicate, for instance, that you're reaching for the ball or running into it...
I agree jayparb1. When a person hits the ball, they almost instantly know what they did right or wrong. But I can see that it may help in understanding a new racket's puzzling quirks.
I don't this this will work for the casual player other than a gee-whiz effect. For the serious player or the semi pro thinking about making slight changes to improve their game it'd be a huge time saver. Think about the number of good high-school and college players who are having problems with consistency and how quick the feedback would be. There are already shoes that sense pressure and acceleration, wrist sensors for arm speed, the racket completes the package.
I discovered commercial motion capture devices recently when writing about robot gesture recognition experiments. The material is a sensor tape containing a 3D bend-and-twist sensor based on fiber optics, which can be custom-designed by the user to monitor the bending and twisting of a person's body and limbs. The "tape" proves accurate positioning and orientation information all along its length, and is typically used in virtual reality, motion tracking, and robotic control applications.
I can see other possibilities for the technology and think this has significant application for describing kinetic movement.As a matter of fact Charles, you have given me an idea for the possible solution to a "nagging" problem involving the destruction of a motion sensor in a diesel "big rig".I intend to contact the company involved with the technology and start the process of "discovery".Who knows, the great sport of tennis may not be the only application.Many thanks and well done.
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