Most wearable sports trackers offer one sensor that you stick in one spot. Ostensibly, said sensor is calibrated to estimate the rest of your movements. Not so with Pivot, the multi-sensor tennis wearable, up now on Indiegogo.
We’ve taken a look at other tennis trackers before, but they attach to the racket instead of the player. TuringSense’s full Pivot system places nine-axis sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer) at wrists, elbows, shoulders, chest, waist, knees, and ankles. A central hub (also on the chest) transmits the info to the cloud.
This means there is no need for a camera to capture your motion — no worries over recording angles, and no lugging along another piece of gear. Of course data is cloud-saved for later review, but it’s also relayed in real-time to mobile devices, allowing coaches and trainers to give feedback even if they’re not on the court with the player.
TuringSense worked with tennis coach Nick Bollettieri to develop the training system that works to analyze your game. He’s worked with the biggest names, including Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova, and the Williams sisters. The beauty of the Pivot system is that it takes his knowledge and applies it to movements the naked eye might not pick up. Replay in slow-mo or compare it to correct form.
Pattern recognition is the main factor here: Pivot studies your form and offers corrections to improve stamina, avoid injury, and recover more quickly if injuries do happen. The idea is that a more comprehensive system lets you review and master complex movements to perfect your technique, and avoid injuries.
And it’s easy to note where things could have gone ugly, or actually did, with Pivot’s 360 degree replay. If you actually perform the ideal swing, you can save the move to the motion library for instant feedback and a 3D comparison to keep you on target.
TuringSense’s Pivot Indiegogo campaign crushed its $75,000 goal and now sits at over $150,000. The Pivot Grand Slam perk gets you the full suit for $750 plus shipping, as well as a t-shirt autographed by Nick Bollettieri and a year’s subscription to the motion capture data plan that will run $10 a month.
The expected retail is $1,470, and probably won’t include the 15-minute conversation with Nick. In the future, the TuringSense team wants to expand Pivot for use in other sports and rehabilitation, so buyers and backers may just get in on the ground floor if all goes as planned. TuringSense has projected delivery for August 2016.
