Nike’s LED basketball court may be the future of training

From robots scoring goals on humans to tablets replacing NFL coaches’ playbooks, we’ve seen some serious tech-based advancements throughout the sporting world in recent months. And, while wearable technology has become a popular choice among athletes to monitor and enhance their training progress, Nike’s recent RISE campaign has truly upped the playing field… or shall we say, court?

The House of Mamba, a state-of-the-art basketball facility in Shanghai, has developed the first-ever full-sized court complete with in-floor LEDs that interact with the players as they move across the surface. Designed by the sportswear giant, the mesmerizing basketball court appears more like a video game than real-life.

The company brought in Lakers star Kobe Bryant to help coach 30 young Chinese players. “My first experience on the LED floor, it’s pretty uhhh … I didn’t even know that was possible. It’s amazing what can be done nowadays. I think the potential and possibilities for the floor are endless,” the NBA star told Lakers Nation.

Visualized with colored X’s, circles, and boundary zones, the court has the ability to guide players along moves and plays curated by Bryant himself.

As Dezeen Magazine reports, the court tracks players on its surface with built-in motion sensors. It is also capable of setting out training programs and drills for players to follow, responding to players’ mistakes and displaying their performance stats.

How 3D printing expands digital disruption

Forrester analyst Michael Yamnitsky has identified three key ways in which 3D printing is driving business impact and digital disruption.

Firstly, 3D printing enables key business imperatives in the age of the customer: faster time to market, new products and new markets, as well as the expansion of personalized products or services.

“For those of you who tuned into the recent Super Bowl, Nike leveraged the geometric precision of 3D printing to minimize the friction on the field that slows athletes down [with custom made cleats], streamlining the prototyping and manufacturing of a small batch of finished products from years to months,” Yamnitsky explained in a recent Forrester blog post.

Secondly, 3D printing expands the reach of digital disruption, with the end-to-end digital process of 3D printing reshaping elements of production and the role of business technology. More specifically, it enables flexibility and transformation in the early stages of the product sequence.

“3D printing makes it easier and faster to change features on the fly, giving much greater flexibility to the supply chain within a factory or across a continent; changes in components and subassemblies can be made at the speed of the Internet,” said Yamnitsky.

Robox: Powered by an ARM-based Atmel chip.

“[Plus, 3D printing] drives digitization much deeper into manufacturing, creating greater visibility and control. 3D print processes are natively digital, with every element under the continuous control of software. Look for developments such as embedded digital serial numbers in every part, full part history and traceability, [as well as] a recentralization of manufacturing supply chains as labor costs become less of a factor for factory location.”

Last, but certainly not least, 3D printing, when properly coupled with the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital data platforms, is capable of disrupting entire value chains.

“It’s the underpinnings of a truly ‘software-driven’ business model, in which every aspect of a physical product — from creation to delivery — is digitally controlled,” Yamnitsky concluded.

The Atmel-powered DIWire (Pensa Labs)

“Business models that eliminate analog layers and constituents, [while] blurring the lies between physical processes and native digital control will have huge impact.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the lucrative 3D printing market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 23% from 2013 to 2020, ultimately reaching $8.41 billion in 2020. The rapid growth is attributed to a wide range of diverse factors including innovative and advanced technologies, customized products, government funding, a wide unexploited app space and rapid development of products.