Taiwanese sports tech company Jingle LLC successfully achieved its Kickstarter goal of $25,000 to help fund production of “Strike,” a spin-tracking, velocity-reading and trajectory-mapping smart baseball
Thus far, donors have backed Jingle’s smart baseball to the tune of $29,612 and nine days still remain on the fundraising campaign.
Jingle carefully designed Strike to mimic the exact specifications of a Major League baseball. The company’s first public product offering is emblazoned with blue laces rather than red, but weighs an identical five ounces and is wrapped in a genuine leather cover that meets Major League specifications.
The guts, or maybe brains, of Strike are what set it apart. The smart baseball’s core boasts an electronic board equipped with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) along with a gyroscope and Bluetooth capabilities.
Strike is the first smart baseball that will track metrics like spin rate and spin axis, according to the company’s Kickstarter page. Trackable metrics and analytics play a key role in the modern day evaluation of professional and amateur pitchers.
By pairing Strike with its companion mobile application, users will receive instantaneous feedback on the speed, spin rate and trajectory of each throw. Immediately following a recorded pitch, an algorithm within the app creates a visual reproduction of trajectory which is displayed in 3D on user’s smart phone screens. Jingle’s “Strike Zone Detection” technology will also give pitchers a chance to see whether or not they hit their target.
Strike tracks the spin rate and spin axis of each thrown ball using an internal IMU that is similar to technology found in hitting training devices like Blast Motion’s Baseball 360 Swing Analyzer. Tracking and improving spin rate can help pitchers improve their breaking balls and learn at which locations they can pitch most effectively against opposing hitters.
The mobile application offers additional features that track pitch history and show progression of pitch analytics over time.
Strike charges wirelessly via a circular charging station and will ship with a protective bag. Backers of Jingle’s Kickstarter campaign can purchase the “Strike Pack” for $99 and initial shipments are scheduled for July 2017.
