2 replies to this topic

[Ionut]

Hi there, I have no experience to work with products like Netduino. However, I work as programmer (.Net) for many years. After finding out about Netduino, I want to find out if the following scenario may be implemented. Can you help me with an answer? In tennis, striking the ball at the right time and in the right position is a crucial task. I would like to develop a system that will track both the ball position and the player position and will start making a noise when the striking position is optimal. I intend to use for this a Netduino motherboard and a bunch of sonar-based sensors.

[Paul Newton]

Hi Ionut, Welcome to the Forums! Wow, you've chosen a big project to start with. Most people try a few flashing LEDs or something with wheels first! Putting aside the Netduino part of the project, I'm not sure you will be able to use sonar, I think there will be too much clutter to sort through to determine where the ball and the player are. I think you might need to go optical, possibly sing some of those Xbox Kinect sensors? Are you able to setup lots of equipment around the court - could you use some sort of break the beam sensors setup across the court to spot the ball as it moves towards the player? Hope it goes well - Paul

[Ionut]

I am intersted in capturing only the last part of ball's movement and the hit. Due to the fact that I will use the device only during training, I will be alowed to put some equipment near the court. The speed of the ball is high and I think that for using optical you need a lot of light. After reading the sensors' specs, I think that the most important issues are: 1) Filtering the detected objects; 2) Synchronizing the sensors; I can't put anything on the ball but I can have the player wearing some tags/sensors.