Motion sensors to assist tennis stars serve more aces

Hitting a first serve ace is the easiest and the most effective way of scoring a point in tennis. But the fact that scoring an ace is most difficult, always puts the best of players wanting – unless you’re a Sampras of course. Analyzing high-speed video of a player's serve is an effective but cumbersome process of monitoring the arm, shoulder and wrist motion during a serve. Therefore, to make the process simple and effectual, Amin Ahmadi and his colleagues at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia have developed a wearable system that relays instant feedback of the player to a connected laptop.

serve ace

This wearable system - matchbox-sized gyroscopic sensors attached to the arm, hand and chest of the player, which has been tested on a few players, "measure shoulder rotation, arm angular velocity and wrist bending" to inform the player and coaching staff as to what’s wrong and help them rectify the same to better a serve each time. How far will tech take into sports, well just wait and watch.

Via: New Scientist