LOS ANGELES, Nov 26 — Basketball season is underway, and fans of the court can now pick up a Bluetooth-equipped basketball and companion app for data-crunching dribbling, shots, and passes.
After a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign this year, sports technology company 94Fifty is now selling its motion-sensor basketballs for the retail price of nearly US$300 (RM966) in Apple stores and online.
The tech-packed ball and app lets users track and analyse a tonne of basketball-related data, while offering competition modes for up to four players. Plus players can follow specially designed workouts to hone their technique and receive tools for perfecting shots, and the data can clue coaches into problem areas and player strengths.
Internal batteries, which last up to eight hours, can be recharged wirelessly.
Adidas recently unveiled its miCoach Smart Ball, a soccer ball that can measure the speed, spin, and trajectory of each strike while feeding that data to an iOS device via Bluetooth in real-time. After three years of development, the company created the Smart Ball with in-built sensors that track its movement and feed the information back to the players through an app on their phone. The Smart Ball will launch sometime next year. — AFP-Relaxnews
