An Internet of Thing (IoT) device includes a sensor coupled to a processor; and a transceiver coupled to the processor. Blockchain smart contracts can be used with the device to facilitate secure operation.

An athletic swing trainer permits an athlete to swing a trainer at speeds far in excess of the athlete's conventional swing speeds and to confirm to the athlete that the practice swings made with the trainer at these extremely high speeds have been technically properly executed. Armed with this experience, the athlete is then able to swing the athlete's own conventional club, bat or racquet at speeds which, though lower than the athlete's trainer swing speeds, are significantly higher than the athlete's conventional club swing speeds. After six or seven trainer swings, an athlete's swing speed at point of contact of a conventional golf club, bat or racquet with a corresponding ball is typically increased in a range of 5 to 15%.

The present invention is an athletic training device, principally for baseball, comprised of a frame having a rear tubular member, base tubular member, a front tubular member and an adjustable and extendable pole. A rigid pad is mounted to the rear tubular member. Rear and front foot stride bars are mounted to the base tubular member and the pole, respectively. A front lateral bar is connected to the front tubular member. Use of the device for a particular individual is accomplished by repositioning the stride bars, front foot lateral bar and pad. The device permits the user to self correct stance, stride and body positioning while hitting, fielding, catching or pitching a baseball or softball.

A device to strengthen a person's arm muscles through the utilization of a portable device including a handle portion and a weight component with the two components separated by a flexible rod is provided. Such a device allows for the user to grip the handle portion and act as if they are throwing such a handle portion while the weight end moves along an arc defined through the length of the flexible rod. The resultant action is the generation of centripetal force along the defined arc with the reactive centrifugal force providing resistance to the user's arm muscles in a manner that is unique and heretofore unattainable through the utilization of a portable exercise device. The flexible rod component provides at least 1 foot (100 cm) of spacing between the handle portion and the weight portion.

A pitching interactive training system having of a mat against which a ball is thrown. The mat has an embedded electronic display of a strike zone broken down into subsidiary “zones” and an exterior perimeter of “zones” just outside the strike zone. The embedded sensors and electronics when hit with a pitch register a point value on a scoreboard. Assignment of values may be adjusted for each pitch by remote control for each batter depending upon the game situation. The electronic scoreboard registers whether a ball or a strike and values for each pitch and maintains a total score with a reset for each new batter. The embedded electronics and scoreboard are powered by battery and rechargeable via an attached electric cord plugged into a standard electrical outlet. An optional radar gun records the speed of each pitch. An optional high speed sports camera attached to the system allows measurement of pitch spin rotations, pitch release point, and captures the entire pitch delivery process for replay to aid coaching and visualizing pitch command.

One or more embodiments of a training bat including a shaft and a hitting head are disclosed. The shaft includes a handle and hand placement indicators. The shaft includes a first end and a second end. The hitting head is attached to the second end of the shaft. The hitting head includes a flat hitting surface which is substantially flat and a back end opposite the flat hitting surface. The hand placement indicators indicate a position for at least one of the hands of a user on the handle and the hand placement indicators indicate an alignment with the back end of the hitting head.

A virtual reality system is provided that includes a video presentation apparatus, the virtual reality system comprising: the video presentation apparatus which includes circuitry configured to: obtain as input a video sequence composed of a plurality of frames and mask information specifying a complementation target region in the video sequence; separate a frame into a foreground region and a background region based on binary images representing differences between the plurality of frames included in the video sequence; determine either one of patch-search-based completion and paste synthesis as a complementation method for the complementation target region based on a number of pixels belonging to the foreground region and located within a given distance from a periphery of the complementation target region; and complement the complementation target region in accordance with the complementation method; and a virtual reality head mounted display which presents the complemented video sequence to the user.

An Internet of Thing (IoT) device includes a camera coupled to a processor; and a wireless transceiver coupled to the processor. Blockchain smart contracts can be used with the device to facilitate secure operation.

A hitting extension for a body-positioning trainer is disclosed. The hitting extension has an elongate, generally flat body with first and second ends spaced from one another. The second end terminates in a rounded distal edge. A first opening formed in the body proximate to the first end allows the hitting extension to be connected to the body-positioning trainer. The body-positioning trainer restricts the movement of the arms in order to allow the user to focus on torso movement, and the hitting extension allows the user to hit a ball, or another such projectile, using the trainer. Methods for training a user in torso movement using the hitting extension are also disclosed.

This invention provides sports ball having asymmetrical traction and/or asymmetrical surface structure. The asymmetrical traction is useful for differentially controlling ball spin and trajectory height as the ball is projected from a pitching machine. The asymmetrical surface structure is useful for differentially controlling the lateral component of the ball's trajectory. Optionally, the ball is a pitching machine ball. The method also provides a method of projecting the ball from a pitching machine.