This smart device transforms your phone into a real speed radar.
Miha Uhan was a baseball player and former member of the Slovenian national team. Turns out, he was also quite the Maker and entrepreneur. Having been around the game for quite some time, he realized that despite advancements in technology, pitching speeds are still measured using traditional radar guns and jotted down with a pen and paper. That was until now.
Meet SCOUTEE, the world’s first smart radar which uses your smartphone to record speed, capture video, save and analyze pitch parameters, monitor progress, and share results. The solution itself, which is much more convenient, compact and reliable than its conventional counterparts, is comprised of two parts: a hardware device and an accompanying mobile app.
The gadget, which is no larger than a bar of soap, can be easily placed on a tripod, clipped onto a fence, held in your hand, and even snapped onto your phone with a small magnet sticker. Once situated, its built-in Doppler radar technology can measure the speed of the ball and relay the data over to the mobile app via Bluetooth. From there, you can select pitch type, location and result right from on screen. The data is also saved so that you can keep tabs on your progress over time. What’s more, it even records video with pitch data overlay, making it super easy to share your talent with friends, coaches and scouts — ideal for creating those college recruiting videos!
As a former pitcher, Uhan was aware of how imperative it is for young players to protect their arms and train responsibility, so he insisted on including a customizable “pitch limit warning” feature that alerts a user whenever they’ve exceed their count. Additionally, SCOUTEE can be an invaluable tool for coaches to keep track of their players’ performance and stats.
The device is equipped with a pair of ARM Cortex MCUs — one tasked with communication, the other for running its Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms — along with Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity, a range of up to 130 feet, an accuracy of +1/-1 mph, and a battery life of six hours with continuous use.
“Over multiple development phases we evolved the radar and processing part of the product dramatically. We started with simple of-the-shelf Doppler radar sensor combined with simple low-cost speed detection processing in our first working prototype. But to meet the final range and accuracy demands of the product we ended up with high-performance Doppler radar transceiver together with high-gain low-noise IF amplifying stages,” its creators reveal.
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