Evolution of True Tennis Live

Tennis is a game of honor. But when that honor is broken there becomes no trust between the players.  That is why True Tennis Live, an interactive tennis court for average players, is needed to let the competitors know if the ball they hit landed in or out on a debatable situation.

Over the course of this semester, I have been amazed at finding just how much my idea has progressed for the better. I was shocked to find how such a simple idea could become so diverse just by being given information through our IST 195 lectures. The most helpful posts that evolved my idea was the competitive analysis and the hardware. These were so great for me because the research I did and the things I learned in class gave me insight to further the advancement of True Tennis Live.

The competitive analysis post required a lot of work but I am so grateful it was assigned. I found out about two other sports in which both a small company and a huge organization attempted to solve the similar problem of finding where a ball is in respect to the playing field. The small company called "RadarGolf" installed a RFID chip within the ball and whenever the ball went out of site all the searcher had to do is take out their RadarGolf device and scan it around the general area of where it landed. Additionally, the FIFA organization had a similar idea with a chip in the ball and use a magnetic field to tell if the ball goes in the goal. Both these ideas helped me to figure out that I can't be using a GPS chip in the ball because it wouldn't be accurate enough, rather I could use the magnetic field just like FIFA had.

The hardware lecture brought me further insight for my idea's growth. We learned about all the different components of the computer and how they work together efficiently. The most important for my idea was the graphics card. I realized that with using a court side computer to review where the ball physically landed would require a high speed video card so that there is no lag when the viewer is watching and it is very clear where it landed. Also, I now know it would be smart to have these court-side computers secure in the court so that there is no chance of a user attempting to steal any of its equipment.

Over the progression of my idea I also learned how difficult it would be to make this a reality. Given all my ideas and how technologically advanced the courts could become, I realized it could be a very costly project. So I would probably need a big donation from an investor to put toward the courts. I would additionally need to figure out if I wanted to just establish the courts in one facility or franchise it so that it could be used all over the country and completely change the sport of tennis.

Overall, I really enjoyed this first project for IST 195. I truly liked actually getting this idea down on print instead of just having the idea sit in my head because I always felt this technology could be used in tennis courts.Viewing all of the other ideas from my classmates was cool and it is clear we have some very smart people in our class. Hopefully one of our ideas hits it big in the real world and makes a person's dreams into a reality.