General

How smartball works?

by Kosta

Overview

In myBall we’ve developed hardware & software solution to track pre-bounce flight trajectory, revolution rate, and velocity with a set of sensors embedded in the ball. The context diagram is shown below

Cricket smartball diagram
Smartball Cricket overview diagram

myBall has no “switch off” button. It works all the time until battery runs out of power. When you pairing your phone with the myBall simply enable BLE and find the device in the myBall app.

Pairing smartball and smartphone

How it works?

Inside the ball we have embedded a microcomputer. It is tracking all movements which are happening to the ball at any point of time. There is a set of sensors located in the center of the ball 

myBall Sensors
myBall Sensors

an algorithm is tracking each movements on each side during the designated window. We set the tracking window to 8 seconds. in other words you have 8 seconds to do the bowl. When time is up data is processed and transferred to the client. The key challenge is to find accurately when exactly ball was released from the hand and when it touched the ground. Typical cricket pattern is 

  1. Ball in the Hand (phase 1)
  2. Release from the hand (phase 2)
  3. High rotation and flight speed (phase 3)
  4. Touch Down shock (phase 4)

Each phase is dependent on each other in a strict sequence. Therefore it a ball is highly rotating before the pitch system can assume you are doing a throw. Let’s visualize movements and high rotation on each axis x, y and z.

High rotation is correlated with movements on each side. This allows us to make educated decision what exactly happened and build 3D model of the flight.

What it is made of?

We are using high quality materials to give you the best experience. The outer shell is glossy PVC with professional white stitches. It feels like a professional cricket ball with the same size and weight. When you hold it in your hand you may feel the hardness and required bouncy attributed to a proper cricket ball. 

Inside the ball we have the following components

  • Microcomputer
  • LiPo Battery 450 mAh
  • Wireless charging coil
  • Inner bounding-protection hard layer 
myBall description
Wireless charger base and smart cricket ball with sensors to track trajectory and speed

These components are assembled accurately and placed in the middle of the ball

How to charge it?

The ball is equipped with the  wireless charging components. The charging coil is located at the bottom (opposite-logo-side_.

Place the ball to the charging station onto this opposite-logo side and make sure the led is blue:

myBall how to charge
myBall charging process