Sony has taken a break from making smartphone camera sensors and consoles this week to release the Sony Smart Tennis Sensor in Australia, to read your every move.
Weighing in at eight grams, the sensor feeds information to a smartphone which helps the user better understand the motion of the swing and where the user can improve. Capturing up to 12 000 shots, the Smart Tennis Sensor can stream this information to an iOS or Android app.
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The idea of wearables to enhance sporting performance isn’t quite as foreign as one might expect.
A few years ago we saw sporting apparel company Nike launch its Bluetooth enabled shoes that connected with your smartphone. These shoes measured, tracked and predicted your activity and then served up a dish of all your fitness results. A few years later, German rival Adidas released its Smart Ball, which deconstructed and explained the how players interacted with the football.
Reported first by Mashable, a small startup company called Connected Cycling, released smart pedals that track and measure the rider’s power output and style.
I can appreciate the drive for precision and in-depth analysis bolstered by a host of reputable research and data, but at what point does technology take the intrigue and the human element out of the very human-centric activity that is sport?
Let us know what your views are in the comments section, but for now, have a look at the Sony Smart Tennis Sensor in action below.
