I have a neighbor who isn't too keen at this point about dropping the bucks to buy a Stalker radar gun for his high school son so I told him that I would research and see if there were any legitmate Iphone Apps that would give "close enough" velocity readings to give him an idea for his son. I wouldn't expect any of these apps to be close to a Stalker but I figure it would give him an idea nevertheless.
Any recommended Apps out there decent to download?
YGD
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I bought a LS radar last year for about $70. I had a chance to grab a JUGS this spring and did so. I have used them side by side and the LS radar is within an MPH or so.
The only smartphone apps I've seen have relied on the user tapping the screen to indicate when the pitch was thrown and caught. So it's basically a stopwatch that uses a calculator. There's too much human error involved, so these apps are just toys.
I guess you could use the camera as the input, but it's pretty slow too and you'd have ot have a way to sense the beginning and end of the ball's flight, so I'm thinking such and app would be complicated and not very accurate.
If you had a baseball that made a sound on release, as well as when it's caught that would be the best way to measure speed, but I don't think anybody has done that, and since it would depend on the special baseball, it wouldn't be useful in games.
The good news is that you can buy a Bushnell gun for under $100 that would be better anyway.
I love the iPhone ap, my son used to throw consistently 95+ on it....
I tried the free app for the iPad a few years ago. Required tapping the screen. Slowest thrower on the high school team normally topped out in the high 70's. He hit 140 mph in his warm-up pitches. So, I guess it was pretty good for him.
Any recommended Apps out there decent to download?
YGD
Haven't tried it, I don't own an iPhone: http://www.athla.com/. Interested in knowing if it works, but will have to wait until the Android version is released.
