Swing alert system and method
A swing alert system disposed about a baseball setup that includes a pitcher and a batter, with one or more swing alert device that determine a speed and position of a ball along a flightpath of the ball pitched by the pitcher, the flightpath extending from the pitcher to a hitting location target proximate to the batter; determine a time when the ball will reach the hitting location target based at least in part on the determined speed and position of the ball along the flightpath; and generate a swing alert while the ball is traveling along the flightpath and before the ball reaches the hitting location target. The swing alert is generated at a time determined based at least in part on the determined time when the ball will reach the hitting location target and a defined swing time associated with the batter.
1. A method of using a swing alert system and one or more previously determined swing metrics associated with a batter to provide alerts in real-time to the batter to hit a moving ball travelling along a flight path, the swing alert system having (i) a swing alert device storing the one or more previously determined swing metrics, (ii) one or more sensors configured to determine a velocity of the moving ball, and (iii) an alert unit configured to generate at least one of a sound, light, vibration, or tactile signal, the method comprising:
receiving, via the swing alert device, an indication corresponding to an upcoming pitching event that causes the ball to travel along the flight path;
capturing metrics of the moving ball by—measuring, via the one or more sensors, a velocity of the moving ball travelling along the flight path, and
calculating, via the swing alert device and based on the velocity of the moving ball, when the moving ball will reach a hitting location target proximate the batter;
merging, via the swing alert device, the captured metrics of the moving ball and the one or more previously determined swing metrics associated with the batter in real-time to determine when the batter must initiate a swing of a bat in order to hit the moving ball at the hitting location target, wherein the one or more previously determined swing metrics includes an overall swing time of the batter comprising—a swing delay time, wherein the swing delay time corresponds to a first period of time between an instruction to swing and an initiation of forward motion of the bat, and
a swing time, wherein the swing time corresponds to a second period of time between the initiation of forward motion of the bat and a contact between the bat and the ball; and
providing, via the alert unit, an alert to the batter instructing the batter to swing in order to hit the moving ball at the hitting location target, wherein the alert includes at least one of the sound, light, vibration, or tactile signal.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the moving ball is thrown by a pitcher or pitching machine along the flight path, and wherein—determining when the batter must initiate the swing to hit the moving ball comprises determining a position of the moving ball along the flight path at which the batter must initiate the swing in order to hit the moving ball at the hitting location target, and
providing the alert to the batter comprises providing the alert to the batter when the moving ball is at the determined position.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the moving ball is thrown by a pitcher or a pitching machine along the flight path, the method further comprising calculating an average velocity of the moving ball along at least a portion of the flight path.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein calculating when the moving ball will reach the hitting location target is further based, at least in part, on the average velocity and a distance between the pitcher or pitching machine and the hitting location target.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein calculating when the moving ball will reach the hitting location target is further based, at least in part, on a position, flightpath, and/or spin of the moving ball.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the alert is a swing alert, and wherein the method further comprises providing, via the alert unit, a stride alert to the batter before the swing alert, wherein the stride alert instructs the batter to stride and is based at least in part on a predetermined stride time of the batter.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the alert unit includes a speaker configured to generate a sound.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the alert unit includes a wearable configured to be worn by the batter.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the alert unit includes eyeglasses, headphones, a wrist band, or a glove.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the alert unit is configured to be coupled to the bat.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more sensors include at least one of a camera, a RADAR sensor, a LIDAR sensor, a SONAR sensor, a light gate sensor, or an optical gate sensor.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the measured velocity from the one or more sensors to the swing alert device.
13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring, via the one or more sensors, a spin of the moving ball along the flightpath, wherein calculating when the moving ball will reach the hitting location target is further based at least in part on a spin of the moving ball.
14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring, via the one or more sensors, a projected velocity decay of the moving ball along the flightpath,
wherein calculating when the moving ball will reach the hitting location target is further based at least in part on the projected velocity decay of the moving ball.
15. The method of claim 1 wherein the swing alert device stores swing time metrics fora plurality of batters, the method further comprising:
receiving, via the swing alert device, a user-input identifying an individual batter; and
retrieving the one or more swing metrics of the individual batter.
16. The method of claim 1 wherein merging the captured metrics of the moving ball and the one or more previously determined swing metrics associated with the batter includes computing an effect of the swing delay time and the swing time on when the batter must initiate the swing.
17. A method of using a swing alert system and a predetermined overall swing time metric associated with a batter to provide alerts to the batter to hit a moving ball travelling along a flight path, the swing alert system having (i) a swing alert device storing the predetermined overall swing time metric, (ii) one or more sensors configured to determine one or more pitch metrics of the moving ball, and (iii) an alert unit configured to generate at least one of a sound, light, vibration, or tactile signal, the method comprising:
receiving, via the swing alert device, an indication corresponding to an upcoming pitching event that causes the ball to travel along the flight path;
measuring, via the one or more sensors, the one or more pitch metrics of the moving ball travelling along the flight path;
based at least on the one or more pitch metrics, calculating, via the swing alert device, when the moving ball will reach a hitting location target proximate the batter;
based at least on the predetermined overall swing time metric of the batter and when the moving ball will reach the hitting location target, determining, via the swing alert device, a position of the ball along the flight path at which the batter must initiate a swing of a bat in order to hit the moving ball at the hitting location target; and
when the ball is at the determined position along the flight path, providing, via the alert unit, an alert to the batter instructing the batter to swing in order to hit the moving ball at the hitting location target, wherein the alert includes at least one of the sound, light, vibration, or tactile signal.
18. The method of claim 17 wherein the one or more sensors include at least one of a camera, a RADAR sensor, a LIDAR sensor, a SONAR sensor, a light gate sensor, or an optical gate sensor.
19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising transmitting the determined one or more pitch metrics from the one or more sensors to the swing alert device.
20. The method of claim 17 wherein the one or more pitch metrics include a velocity, speed, spin, rotation, and/or projected velocity decay of the moving ball.
21. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
receiving, via the swing alert device, a user-input identifying an individual batter; and
retrieving the swing metrics of the individual batter.
22. The method of claim 17 wherein the predetermined overall swing time metric comprises a swing delay time of the batter and a swing time of the batter.
23. A method of using a swing alert system and one or more previously determined swing metrics associated with a batter to provide alerts in real-time to the batter to hit a moving ball travelling along a flight path, the swing alert system having (i) a swing alert device storing the one or more swing metrics, and (ii) an alert unit configured to generate at least one of a sound, light, vibration, or tactile signal, the method comprising:
receiving, via the swing alert device, an indication corresponding to an upcoming pitching event that causes the ball to travel along the flight path;
receiving, via the swing alert device, a velocity of the moving ball;
calculating, via the swing alert device and based on the velocity of the moving ball, when the moving ball will reach a hitting location target proximate the batter;
merging, via the swing alert device, when the moving ball will reach a hitting location target proximate the batter and the one or more previously determined swing metrics associated with the batter in real-time to determine when the batter must initiate a swing of a bat in order to hit the moving ball at the hitting location target, wherein the one or more previously determined swing metrics includes an overall swing time of the batter comprising:
a swing delay time, wherein the swing delay time corresponds to a first period of time between an instruction to swing and an initiation of forward motion of the bat, and
a swing time, wherein the swing time corresponds to a second period of time between the initiation of forward motion of the bat and a contact between the bat and the ball; and
providing, via the alert unit, an alert to the batter instructing the batter to swing in order to hit the moving ball at the hitting location target, wherein the alert includes at least one of the sound, light, vibration, or tactile signal.
24. The method of claim 23 wherein receiving the velocity of the moving ball includes receiving a user input corresponding to a velocity of the moving ball.
25. The method of claim 23 wherein receiving the velocity of the moving ball includes receiving the velocity from one or more sensors.
26. A method of using a swing alert system and a predetermined overall swing time metric associated with a batter to provide alerts to the batter to hit a moving ball travelling along a flight path, the swing alert system having (i) a swing alert device storing the predetermined overall swing time metric associated with a batter, and (ii) an alert unit configured to generate at least one of a sound, light, vibration, or tactile signal, the method comprising:
receiving, via the swing alert device, an indication corresponding to an upcoming pitching event that causes the ball to travel along the flight path;
receiving, via the swing alert device, one or more pitch metrics of the moving ball; based at least on the one or more pitch metrics, calculating, via the swing alert device, when the moving ball will reach a hitting location target proximate the batter;
based at least on the predetermined overall swing time metric of the batter and when the moving ball will reach the hitting location target, determining, via the swing alert device, a position of the ball along the flight path at which the batter must initiate a swing of a bat in order to hit the moving ball at the hitting location target; and
when the ball is at the determined position along the flight path, providing, via the alert unit, an alert to the batter instructing the batter to swing in order to hit the moving ball at the hitting location target, wherein the alert includes at least one of the sound, light, vibration, or tactile signal.
27. The method of claim 26 wherein receiving the one or more pitch metrics of the moving ball includes receiving a user input corresponding to the one or more pitch metrics.
28. The method of claim 26 wherein the overall swing time metric comprises a swing delay time of the batter and a swing time of the batter.
29. The method of claim 26 wherein the one or more pitch metrics include a velocity, speed, spin, rotation, and/or projected velocity decay of the moving ball.