OT: Wilson X 'Smart' Football

Submitted by redwhiteandMGOBLUE on

Cool football bluetooth throwing stats technology from Wilson.  Too bad the battery cannot be recharged.

 

The Wilson X comes with a smartphone-holding arm band designed to replicate the “wrist coaches” typically worn by quarterbacks. The Wilson X will carry a price tag of $199. By comparison, Wilson’s official NFL football retails for $100 each. At the heart of the technology is a motion sensor that’s suspended in the center of the football. It connects to Apple (AAPL) and Android (GOOGL) mobile devices wirelessly using Bluetooth, sending data on the velocity, distance, spin rate and spiral efficiency of a throw. The sensor also detects whether the ball was caught or dropped. The football’s built-in battery can’t be recharged, although Wilson says the football will continue to work for 500 hours of connected play, or about 200,000 throws. Bob Thurman, vice president of Wilson Labs, noted that 200,000 consecutive throws would destroy the pigskin before draining the battery.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/08/08/wilson-x-smart-football-…

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Wilson X 'Smart' Football

ijohnb

August 9th, 2016 at 8:03 AM ^

really cool, but the description of it does not answer what is clearly the most important question about this football.

Does it support Roblox?

Joined: 09/21/2009

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Firstbase

August 9th, 2016 at 8:29 AM ^

...play the game and let quarterbacks quarterback? Why do we feel compelled to leverage technology in order to analyze the analysis of the analysis? Admittedly, I'm old school, but sometimes I just shake my head.

Case in point regarding over-analysis:  I was watching the Golf Channel the other day. It struck me funny how over-instructed (and in some cases, dependent) we can get in playing a relatively simple game of hitting a small white ball into a hole, particularly when it comes to putting. One instructor was carefully and in great detail admonishing viewers to be sure to add more pace to the putt when further away from the hole. Well, duh! I never thought to hit it harder! Sheesh.

But I digress!

 

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Prince Lover

August 9th, 2016 at 8:42 AM ^

When will they put some sort of device/alarm into the football that will trigger an alarm when it crosses the goal line. It would eliminate a lot of official replays.

Joined: 07/01/2013

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Maceo24

August 9th, 2016 at 11:27 AM ^

I'm sure it's being worked on, but it isn't quite there yet.  I'm assuming cameras won't work becuase you can't always see the ball.  

You would either need something buried in the goal line or on each sideline.  If on each sideline, you could be 80 feet away from what you are trying to measure to the mm.

The real issue is where does the sensor go.  If it is suspended in the middle of the ball, you would then have to know the exact ball orientation to know if it crossed the goal-line depending on if the ball is crossing side first or tip first.

tldr: One day we will be there, but you are stuck looking at cameras until technology catches up.

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