Pro Baseball Player Tech Avatars Could Be a Hit
Hall of Famer Ted Williams once famously commented that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. Although Williams—a .344 career hitter—made it look easy, he had a point. Hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely is difficult. It’s also an excellent example of some very entertaining applied physics.
名人堂的泰德威廉斯(Ted Williams)曾著名的評論過:運動界中最難的是打棒球。儘管威廉斯,一個平均打擊率0.344的職業打者讓它看起來很輕鬆,他的話是有道理的。用一支弧形的球棒不偏不移的打中一顆圓球是困難的。這同時也是一些極富娛樂性的應用物理的極佳例子。
No surprise then that professional baseball players are turning to science to improve their multimillion-dollar strokes. Some approaches focus on the neuroscience of hitting—the deep internal brain mechanisms behind seeing the pitch and reacting to it. But for more info about the swing itself, a sports tech company called Zepp Labs makes a sensor that can help break down those mechanics.
不意外的是,職業棒球員會向科學尋求改進他們價值百萬元的揮棒。有些方法著重在揮棒時的神經學—深入腦部,對於看到投球及做出反應時的內部運作機制。但為求打擊本身的更多資訊,一家叫做Zepp實驗室的運動技術公司製作了一個可以解析那些機制的感應器。
The sensor sits in the knob of the company’s so-called “Smart Bat” and uses two accelerometers and a three-axis gyroscope to measure bat speed, hand speed, attack angle and other factors. The sensor, which weighs only about eight grams, sends this info to a smartphone app via Bluetooth. The app can then use this data to have an onscreen avatar reenact the swing, in the hope that the batter can pick up some details and make the necessary adjustments. Zepp’s sensors can also be fitted to golf clubs and tennis rackets.
公司將這感應器裝在握把的球棒稱為「智慧型球棒」
Never one to mince words, Ted Williams also once said that pitchers were “the stupidest people alive.” Hmm, maybe somebody could come up with a smart baseball to help them. Against any Ted Williamses out there, anyway.
—Larry Greenemeier