1. MajesTech Training Tech
lightweight training shoe proposal
by Neha Kulkarni & Jillian Bauer
Philadelphia University
kulkarni.neha99@gmail.com, jillianbauer@gmail.com

2. table of contents
the challenge, p. 1
overview
challenges of wearable technology
batting stance theory, p. 2
“the perfect swing”
signaling to batters
our solution, p. 3
product overview
product features
target users
benefits to user
technical approach: system overview, p. 4
hardware placement
system performance
technical approach: hardware, p. 5-6
3.3v FLORA microcontroller
3.7v lithium ion battery
conductive thread
stainless conductive thread
square force sensitive resistor
accelerometer/compass sensor
vibrating motor disk
technical approach: connections, p. 7
hardware connections overview
connections explained
technical approach: programming, p. 8
code overview
applications used
code descriptions
mobile application, p. 9
overview
design
mobile application data insights, p. 10-11
overview + examples
code descriptions
analysis of alternatives, p. 12
what was rejected
in an ideal world
glossary of acronyms, p. 13

3. table of figures
batting stance theory, p. 2
figure 1
product overview, p. 3
figure 2
hardware placement diagram, p. 4
figure 3
3.3v FLORA microcontroller, p. 5
figure 4
3.7v lithium ion battery, p. 5
figure 5
stainless conductive thread, p. 5
figure 6
square force sensitive resistor, p. 6
figure 7
accelerometer/compass sensor, p. 6
figure 8
vibrating motor disk, p. 6
figure 9
hardware connections overview, p. 7
figure 10
mobile application overview, p. 9
figure 11
mobile application design insights, p. 10-11
figures 12-17

4. the challenge
overview
Each year more than 500,000 American students play baseball for their high school and college teams. With only 1,200 total slots on the MLB teams’ active rosters, and the average player’s career lasting for 5.6 years, their chances of going pro are slim.
But every young player can dream—and improve their playing skills with the help of our wearable training technology.
In response to the recent explosion of wearable tech, we’re now proposing the MajesTech Training Tech line, which will offer products that help high school and college athletes improve their performance.
MajesTech’s first product will target the baseball sector with a lightweight training shoe that gives baseball players real-time feedback and data insights on their batting stance. Eventually this training shoe will offer pitching, running, and fielding feedback, too.
challenges of wearable technology
As the fashion and technology worlds merge to provide something functional but uninvasive to consumers’ fashion and comfort, developing a product that sticks presents many challenges.
While developing our idea, we encountered and addressed the following challenges:
•
Bulky Hardware: The available wearable hardware is big and bulky, which is tough to make fashionable and comfortable for the players.
•
User Adaptability: Players must adapt to the real-time feedback given by the wearable. They must understand what the signals mean and also become comfortable with receiving them while wearing the hardware, without affecting their performance.
•
The “Perfect Swing”: Since there is no “perfect swing,” there is no one algorithm behind what makes a homerun hitter. Each hitter must make adjustments and track their progress against themself.
1

5. batting stance theory
the “perfect swing”
Though there is no “perfect swing,” there are common movements that players make while batting. To determine what the most common gestures are, we studied videos of several homerun hitters such as Albert Pujols, pictured below. The following foot positions were common amongst players who made contact with a pitch:
equal pressure on both feet
pressure shifts to back foot, front foot pivots out
front foot lifts, rotates out
pressure shifts to front foot
pressure fully shifts to front foot, front foot pivots out
pressure shifts back to
both feet
signaling to batters
If batters could be given a signal to tell them when to shift the pressure in their feet, and also to provide feedback on how they’re pivoting throughout their swing, their batting would improve.
figure 1
2

6. our solution
product overview
Our product is a lightweight training shoe that gives baseball players real-time feedback and detailed data insights on their batting stance. The shoe measures the pressure placed on each foot, and communicates with a vibrating motor in that foot to tell them when they need to apply more pressure during their swing. It also as an accelerometer/ compass sensor to track each foot’s position and movement, which feeds into the mobile application to show players their pivoting patterns throughout each of their swings.
product features
Pressure readings in each shoe
Real-time vibrating feedback
Real-time foot pivot tracking (mobile app)
target users
Our target users are high school and college baseball players and their batting coaches.
benefits to user
Players will be given the opportunity to adjust their feet while playing, which will improve their overall batting stance and lead to better hitting. Players and coaches will also be able to track a player’s pressure and pivoting patterns during their swings using the mobile app.
figure 2
3

7. technical approach: system overview
system performance
SYSTEM
3.3 Volt Flora Microcontroller: 3.3v 150mA
POWER SOURCE
3.7V Lithium Ion Polymer Battery:1200mAh for a total of about 4.5 Wh
CONNECTION
Stainless Medium Conductive Thread - 3 ply: 0.83 ohm per inch
SENSORS
Square Force-Sensitive Resistor: 38mm square sensing region
FLORA Accelerometer/Compass Sensor: 2.16V to 3.6V
FEEDBACK
Vibrating Mini Motor Disk: 100 mA at 5v
3.7V FLORA microcontroller
3V lithium ion
polymer battery
FLORA accelerometer/ compass sensor
square force-sensitive resistor
vibrating mini motor disc
hardware placement diagram
figure 3
4

8. technical approach: hardware
3.3v flora microcontroller
Our product is powered by Adafruit’s FLORA microcontroller. The FLORA’s lightweight, round design is inobtrusive to the design of the shoe.
3.7v lithium ion battery
The 3.7v battery powers the FLORA microcontroller and all its components.
stainless conductive thread
This connects the FLORA board to all of its components, including the battery, pressure sensors, accelerometer, vibrating motor disk and LED neopixels.
figure 4
figure 5
figure 6
5

9. technical approach: hardware
square FSR (input)
This measures the pressure placed on each foot throughout a player’s swing.
accelerometer (input)
This measures the position of the foot on an x-, y- and z-axis.
vibrating motor disk (output)
This vibrates on the side of the shoe when a player needs to switch the pressure in their feet during a swing.
figure 9
figure 7
figure 8
6

10. technical approach: connections
battery connection
Here we’ve connected the battery to the bottom of the FLORA microcontroller.
accelerometer/compass connection
For the accelerometer/compass, we have used conductive thread to connect the FLORA microcontroller to the accelerometer. The conductive thread directly connects the FLORA microcontroller’s GND, 3.3V, SDA and SCL to the FLORA accelerometer’s GND, 3.3V, SDA and SCL.
FSR connection
For the FSR connection, we’ve connected one of the FSR’s jumper’s to the 3.3V on the FLORA microcontroller. The FSR’s other jumper is connected to a 1k resistor, which connects on one end to GND and the other end to DIGITAL.
vibrating mini motor disc
For the vibrating mini motor disc, we’ve connected the disc’s GND and 3.3V directly to the FLORA microcontroller’s GND and 3.3V.
hardware connections overview
connections explained
figure 10
7

11. technical approach: programming
code overview
We will use a combination of the C++ and Java programming languages to program our hardware and mobile application.
applications used
We will use the following libraries/applications to write our code:
Adafruit Arduino 1.0.5 2
Processing 2.1.1
3rd party code used
http://www.arduino.cc/
http://processing.org/reference/libraries/
https://learn.adafruit.com/force-sensitive-resistor-fsr/using-an-fsr
https://learn.adafruit.com/flora-accelerometer/programming
code descriptions
FLORA microcontroller + pressure sensor + vibrating motor disc code
The FLORA collects pressure readings through the FSR from each foot and communicates with the vibrating mini motor disk when pressure needs to be switched from one foot to another.
To achieve this, we wrote an if statement that states that if the pressure is above a certain threshold after a certain amount of pressure is applied after a certain amount of time, the vibrating mini motor disc will vibrate to indicate that the player must switch the pressure in their feet in order to turn off the vibrating sensor. Once the pressure is switched, the vibrating mini motor disc stops vibrating.
The pressure sensors also collect data and store the numbers as variables, which are then drawn in Processing to reflect pressure patterns during each player’s swing.
FLORA microcontroller + accelerometer/compass
The FLORA also collects the foot’s movements through the FLORA accelerometer/ compass sensor, on an x-, y- and z-axis. This data shows the angle at which a player is pivoting his foot (via the compass), and also when a player tilts his foot to the left or the right.
We collected the x-, y- and z-axis data from the accelerometer and stored it in the form of variables. Then, using shapes and images, we redrew the data in Procesisng to create a real-time foot pivot tracker, and also a graph that shows a player’s foot tilt to the left or right.
8

12. output: mobile application design
design overview
We used Majestic’s blue and red for inspiration, and modified those colors’ saturation to create a brighter, updated palette for the mobile application. All fonts used were variations of Helvetica Neue at different weights, which is legible at most sizes on smart phones and tablet devices. The background color of the application is white and light blue, which creates contrast against the bright colors we’ve chosen for our palette, with the exception of the bottom menu panel, which is black.
mobile application overview
The mobile application’s target users are both players and coaches looking to improve their batting stance.
figure 11
9

13. output: mobile app. data insights
pressure applied
time in seconds
pressure applied over time
pressure applied
time in seconds
pressure applied over time
pressure distribution
total pressure applied
data visualization overview
The application’s visualizations will look like the following examples:
figure 12
figure 13
figure 14
figure 15
10

14. output: mobile app. data insights
real-time foot pivot tracking
real-time foot pivot + lift tracking
code description
We will use Processing 2.1.1 to visualize the data collected from our hardware.
pressure visualizations
The data from the pressure sensor is collected as integers ranging from about 0 to 1200, depending on how much pressure is applied.
We will create an if statement to tell processing that if the pressure is greater than 0, it must draw a vertical rectangle that corresponds with that integer’s position on the y-axis of the Processing sketch. It will redraw every second to give the user real-time feedback on their foot pressure throughout their swing. When it redraws, the position of the rectangle on the x-axis will move to the right of its previous position.
pivot visualizations
The data from the accelerometer is collected as x-, y- and z- integers that represent the foot’s position on each of those axises.
We will draw a background with a representation of degrees. We will create an if statement that states if the root rotates to the right or left of its original position, then the shape we’ve created to represent the foot will rotate at that angle. It will redraw constantly to reflect the real-time motion of the player’s foot.
figure 16
figure 17
11

15. analysis of alternatives/product potential
overview
Most of our ideas were out of the question due to lack of time and resources. Other ideas were rejected because they did not fit the fashion requirements for this project.
what was rejected
First, we rejected the shirt as a garment due to the size and the weight of the hardware. Shoes offer more opportunities to hide the hardware and prevent the hardware from being uncomfortable for the players to wear.
if we had more time...
additional pressure/vibrating sensors
First we would like to add a second pressure sensor and vibrating motor disc to each shoe. Ideally, there would be a pressure sensor in the ball and the heal of each foot, which would interact with a vibrating motor disc in the front and back of each foot. This would signal to players when to shift the pressure from one end of their foot to the other.
distance sensor
Next, we’d like to add a distance sensor on the side of each shoe, with each distance sensor facing the other. This would measure how far apart a player’s feet are, and provide a batting stance width.
LED battery status indicator
We’d also like to add an LED to the outside of the shoe that shows players when the device needs to be recharged.
bluetooth mobile app
Most importantly of all, we would like to build a proper mobile application that would immediately send the data captured from the sensors back to the app for the players and coaches to view. If we had the opportunity to develop the mobile app, we would also make use of Bluetooth to connect the mobile app to the sensors located in the shoe. The mobile application would then spit out real-time visualizations showing the players their batting stance patterns. We would create one visualization on the application that shows the angles and balance of the player, which could help him figure out his mistakes and correct them.
expanded target audience
With more time, the mobile application could angle the same data captured in other ways to give players insights on their overall batting stance, running, fielding and pitching.
12

16. glossary of acronyms
13
FSR
Force Sensitive Resistor
GND
Ground
LED
Light Emitting Diode
mA
Milliamp
mAh
Milliampere-hour
SCL
Structural Composite Lumber
SDA
Strand Displacement Amplification
V
Volts
VBATT
Vehicle Battery Voltage
Wh
Watthour