Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | Portable Sport Boundary Sensors |
Andreya Dart Modhura Kar Neil Bhide |
Jose Sanchez Vicarte | design_document0.pdf final_paper0.docx other0.pdf presentation0.pptx proposal0.pdf |
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| Problem: One of the biggest sources of tension in recreational tennis and volleyball is line call disputes. When playing recreational tennis and volleyball, players have to rely on their opponent to make honest calls. Sometimes, unfortunately, the opponent makes the wrong call either by accident or on purpose. We would like to create portable sensors that can be placed on recreational tennis courts. These sensors will beep when a ball is out of bounds, thus dispelling any line disputes. Solution: Our solution involves placing sensors in areas of the court that have the most disputes: the baseline and the side alleys in tennis and the back boundary lines in volleyball. We plan on placing 2-4 sensors on each line to track and beep if a standard green tennis ball and standard size volleyball lands outside the line. We will use passive infrared sensors placed just beyond the far side of the line to detect if the ball hits outside of it. We will only be looking at 1 inch outside of the line since anything further can be seen by both players. Goals: One goal of this project is to allow the average recreational player to know if the ball they hit is in or out. We want our solution be easy to install, portable, heavy enough to withstand wind, durable enough to survive rain, and solar powered. Additionally, our solution will work universally on all kinds of courts including asphalt, concrete, carpet, and clay. Challenges: One challenge that we will face is incorporating the sensors onto game play surface. The sensors need to be able to withstand various forces (such as a ball hitting it, a player stepping on it, or a player hitting it with their racquet) and also not interfere with game play. Another challenge is creating sensors with high accuracy; a sensor that works less than 90% of the time does not solve our original problem. Sensor placement provides additional issues. We want the sensors to be portable, but some locations on the court will yield inaccuracies in sensing the ball. They need to be placed in such a manner that they accurately cover the entire line they are dedicated to ‘watching,’ since a sensor that is placed incorrectly could declare balls out when they are actually in. Additionally, the sensors need to be able to differentiate between human and ball movement, which is difficult because of the variety of speeds of both the ball and human in a match. |
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