Nike Planning Ball, Equipment Radar Device In Digital Push

Nike is "planning to put sensors on soccer balls and other equipment" to offer data to players of team sports, according to Matt Townsend of BLOOMBERG. Nike obtained a patent this week for an invention dubbed Nike+TM that "uses a computerized radar system with transmitters placed on a ball and players to evaluate individual statistics such as the strength of a shot in soccer and how well a team plays together." The new system "could eventually work with several sports" including American football, baseball and hockey. The new technology could also "serve as a way for coaches to evaluate players." In one scenario, it could "track two soccer players at the same time with sensors on their shoes as well as the ball to measure how well they pass to each other" (BLOOMBERG, 8/2).