chavez-klier | design

Nowadays, technology is implemented in various aspects of our daily lives, and tennis is no exception. Many systems and gadgets have been created to support tennis players and trainers in official tournaments and training sessions.

However, these current systems mainly only provide retrospective rather than real-time feedback and have a limited cue range. The main objective of this thesis is to explore how well intermediate tennis players respond to real-time feedback cues from a source other than their trainer during training sessions. This feedback would be given as haptic, visual, or auditory cues that help them focus on the appropriate timing for hitting the ball. The study aims to investigate whether players can accept these external cues represented as a vibrotactile sensor (haptic), a light (visual) and an alert (audible).

The final prototype was tested on a hard court with six active tennis players using a wizard of oz method. Results from this test were analyzed via an affinity diagram and revealed some general advantages of technology in tennis. The system expectations before the test were also discussed, and its acceptance after the test was concluded. Additionally, some prototype constraints arose due to the tennis complexity and possible future applications.

In conclusion, the key findings from this study on the acceptance of real-time cues from external sources during tennis training have far-reaching implications for both the tennis industry and technology. Understanding how to effectively incorporate real-time feedback into training programs could revolutionize how tennis is taught and learned.

The iterations, codes, and ideas put forth within this context are entirely of my own creation and granted me with distinction the title of Master of science in Engineering in Human-Computer-Interaction.