M Engineering: Baseball Swings
December 16th, 2010 at 2:03 PM ^
To hit a round ball with a round bat is still the most difficult act in sports. This is why baseball will never be usurped as the quintessential American sport. Also, this is a good read:
December 16th, 2010 at 8:39 PM ^
Oh, and I have that book, too.
December 16th, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^
I had Perkins for my dynamics class a couple years ago. He's the man. He was working on a putter back then. Basically, this thing is like a full-size Wii Remote with Motion Plus. Pretty cool stuff.
December 16th, 2010 at 2:35 PM ^
This is brilliant. Michigan Engineers never fail to amaze me. Although, I must admit, I don't think I want that guy doing the demonstrations batting clean-up (or anywhere other than last) for my softball team . . .
December 16th, 2010 at 3:07 PM ^
So for those of us without sound at work while we avoid to do any work whatsoever, what r they actually saying here?
December 16th, 2010 at 3:08 PM ^
Prof Perkins was the only reason I was able to stay awake during the majority of my ME240 classes held at 8:30 in the winter of 04. I would think that you would need one of those accelerometers in the tip of te bat as well though...
When I was taking the class his project du jour was a fly fishing rod. And yes, the guy in the gray sweatshirt probably should have gone to the batting cages for an hour or two before this video was filmed and posted on the internets.
December 16th, 2010 at 3:30 PM ^
If you've got a 3axis accelerometer, I don't think one at the tip of the bat is *required*, although it might help provide more accurate data. If you can tell the position and acceleration of one point of the bat in 3 dimensions, you've effectively tracked the whole thing unless you want to keep track something like bat flex during a swing.
December 16th, 2010 at 3:32 PM ^
The Michigan Difference.
Sorry hit the enter key instead of the apostrophe.
December 16th, 2010 at 3:57 PM ^
I had one of those guys as my GSI for a design course. Awesome.
December 16th, 2010 at 4:40 PM ^
I love his hi-tech laptop stand. Thank you, USPS.
December 16th, 2010 at 6:32 PM ^
Interesting concept, a bit simplistic approach to fixing a swing, but whatever. Honestly, I'm not sure this device would find much more, if anything more, than a trained eye. Now, if they were able to use more of these devices together to measure leg and arm position, head and eye movement, etc... they might be on to something really innovative here.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:35 PM ^
I wouldnt be surprised if they dont take this and try to apply some of the motion capture and motion prediction software they have in the IE department. I worked on some experiments in that group and the motion capture stuff was excellent at helping pinpoint limb/joint position as well as head position and orientation.