A huge amount of the smart devices on the market right now are geared towards health and fitness. Certainly the growing number of wearable gadgets promise the user the ability to track their fitness and health in real-time.
What’s interesting to observe is the ongoing and innovative use of technology in professional sports as well. In the video below, Kobe Bryant describes the installation of an LED-powered and interactive basketball court in China, which allows players to practice with a huge range of graphics and programs.
The superficial uses of this technology are obvious. A coach or manager can program different training sets to keep things fresh on the court. They’re able to visualise a practice session for players much easier than showing it done themselves.
There’s a quick glimpse in the video of a player shepherding an imaginary opponent. It’s almost game-like – a coach could easily use this type of tech to train players without the use of a massive support staff. (Saving huge amounts of money in the process).
Although the LCD court is completely separated from wearable technology and is on a hugely different scale, the purpose is the same – to provide real-time results and become a type of “training assistant”. (The concept of the digital assistant continues to gain ground – Siri and Cortana heading to laptops are just recent examples of this).
But the only benefits from this type of technology come if users are utilising the effects correctly. A user of a health band can track his or her movements all day, but unless the technology is providing recommendations and a call-to-action, the tech is essentially useless.
An interactive basketball court is more of a “dumb” technology. It provides assistance but nothing else. What the next generation of this technology could provide, and needs to, is something else beyond information. Imagine a team being run across a court and benchmarked against world-record holders.
If this technology went mainstream across the NBA, teams could practice against other teams from previous games. If a team’s entire movement is recorded, coaches could use footsteps to pinpoint exactly where things went wrong – or right. (Teams would pay huge amounts of money for this information, no doubt).
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