Double Dribble: Basketball Joins the Wearable Revolution

As we saw in Carl Ford’s Kurzweil series a few weeks ago, the IoT is poised to make a big impact on the world of competitive sports. The beginning of that revolution showed its face this week thanks to Onyx Motion and its basketball coaching app for Smart watches.

To read the Kurzweil series, click here, here and here.

In partnership with NBA player Ben Gordon, on July 14 Onyx launched its funding campaign for Swish, its digital basketball coaching app for smartwatches. This sports tech uses motion sensors to analyze an athlete’s technique and uses that information to provide easy-to-understand tips.

“The Swish technology is bringing users closer to their favorite basketball player by giving them the opportunity to learn from them,” said Ben Gordon, NBA athlete and director of innovation, Swish. “I’m excited to work with the team on the further development of this one-of-a-kind experience and help players at any level improve their game.”

Swish was founded by Marissa Wu, engineering student at University of Toronto and focuses on building a player’s skills with data, tips and

inspiration from pro athletes. While Swish monitors performance improvement, it also learns how to provide better tips for each user.

“Here at Onyx Motion, we are building the next generation of AI for sports coaching,” said Wu, CEO, Onyx Motion. “Swish allows mobile devices to break into physical interaction to a point where it can tell you what to do to get better. Our goal was to create a health and fitness device that would give personal recommendations, not just churn out numbers.”

The Swish app is the first step of Onyx Motion’s vision to provide kinesthetic learning across sports and eventually other industries. Onyx Motion’s goal is to raise $10,000 on Indiegogo by August 8 to fund the launch of an Android Wear app.

For more about wearable tech and how it applies to the IoT, register for the IoT Evolution Expo, August 17 to 20 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.