ball

Enterprise, Media & Entertainment, Startups

“Introducing New Moves for House DJs: Meet Odd Ball, the Innovative Ball-shaped Instrument”

Odd Ball, the ball-shaped music instrument, is adding new gestures so you can become a house DJOdd Ball is a company that makes fun electronic bouncy balls that let you generate MIDI sounds by tapping or bouncing them. With the most recent app update, the company also lets you be the DJ at a house party with these gestures. The app will generate sound based on how hard or fast you spin or shake the ball. While Odd Ball hasn’t raised any institutional money, it has some advisors on the board. Odd Ball is working on a version of the ball with multiple RGB LEDs for a new interaction dimension.

Max Chen
April 2, 2024

Enterprise

Experience Racquet Sports Like Never Before with Volley’s Revolutionary AI-Enhanced Ball Machine

A new sports tech startup, Volley, aims to revolutionize the way racquet sports players (platform tennis, padel, and pickleball) train with its AI-enabled sports training machine. You can also digitally control the machine by tapping on your phone to select where you want the ball to land. As an avid platform tennis player, John came up with the idea for Volley when he decided to put a tennis ball machine up on painter sticks to mimic certain shots. “Volley is in a category on its own because the ball trainers of yesterday are no longer meeting the needs of players and pros. On the long-term roadmap, the company says it wants to start leasing trainers to individual players who have at-home courts.

Zara Khan
March 13, 2024

Gadgets

“Experience the Game through Touch: OneCourt’s Revolutionary Haptic Mini-Field for Blind Fans”

Sports fans most often take in their favorite game by watching it on TV or from the venue itself, but those with blind and low vision generally must rely on the announcer or a radio broadcast. OneCourt aims to augment their experience with a lap-top miniature field that lets someone feel the position of the players and ball in near real time. There’s nothing wrong with the radio broadcast, but it’s often delayed by 10 to 30 seconds, and neither it nor live announcers provide the spatial detail that sighted fans are treated to. Fortunately, many major league sports broadcast the exact, real-time locations of the players and ball along with video and audio. The OneCourt team takes this information and transmits it to a haptic display with a touchable cover imitating the pitch or field lines.