Interesting device?

[frankqt]

Hi,

Recently, I was talking to an old colleague, he said that he is developing a simple launch monitor that can measures speed and launch angle and the general direction of the ball. He believed he could bring this to market under 300 USD street price. This got me thinking, there is really no product like that except some basic radars but they don't provide launch angle etc. If you want those details, you need to go high end which becomes a substantial investment.

What do you guys think? He is asking me to invest in his company, do you guys think such device has a potential market?


Frank

[iacas]

Originally Posted by frankqt

Hi,Recently, I was talking to an old colleague, he said that he is developing a simple launch monitor that can measures speed and launch angle and the general direction of the ball. He believed he could bring this to market under 300 USD street price. This got me thinking, there is really no product like that except some basic radars but they don't provide launch angle etc. If you want those details, you need to go high end which becomes a substantial investment. What do you guys think? He is asking me to invest in his company, do you guys think such device has a potential market? Frank

I don't see a place for it, no. Why pay when you can measure speed of the clubhead either by distance or a $49 device (they're out there), launch angle you can see (not get exactly, but you can see it), and "general direction of the ball" is pretty obvious if you just look.

There are some fairly inexpensive launch monitors that give a fair amount more detail than you're suggesting.

[saevel25]

If you really want to to make a cheap one and multitask. Just get a high speed camera (can be used to analyze your swing). With the camerea you will know the FPS of the video taken. Just create a board with equally spaced slots, position the camera so you can see the ball binging launched off the clubface, and just measure the speed that way, you can measure the angle as well. Its not instant analysis, but it will cost the same, and you will have a nice camera to analyze your swing with.

[Topper]

I don't know how accurate or precise a $49 device is.  Even if your proposed launch monitor doesn't provide more information, there could be a market if it has substantially better accuracy and precision.  Maybe.

Personally prefer a grass driving range where I can see the ball flight.  But something like this might appeal to those who setup nets at home.

[newtogolf]

There's already some products out there at near that price range that do what you're proposing and more.  I don't know how well they work, but before you make any investments you might want to check them out.  Here's a link; http://store.dancindogg.com/ddstore/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD∏_Code=20080012&Category;_Code=DDGS&Store;_Code=DG&Offset; =

[Caphenning]

I'm not particularly sure how useful it would be, but with the right infomercial you can sell just about anything...