Robot boxing trainer knocks out competition again at CES
SkyTechSport had a big hit with BotBoxer during CES last year as their boxing training tool earned several awards and accolades.
Now they have returned to the convention floor as they take a swing at a more recreational version of the AI punching bag that bobs and weaves.
“We’re introducing BotBoxer Play with augmented reality glasses so that when you put them on, you see a virtual character in front of you,” marketing manager Mili Gevorkyan said. “Since it’s augmented reality, you see everything around you. But instead of a bag, you get a hologram of a character.
“It creates a 3D world around it. So when you’re fighting with a character, you can dodge just by moving left or right or down because you see the punches coming toward you and it knows your 3D position.”
The original version was designed to help high-level boxers perfect their craft. Sensors calculate the angle and power of each strike and store data for analysis over time.
That’s a limited market, however. So the Los Angeles-based company, which first made a splash with a ski and snowboard simulator endorsed by several Olympians, sought to expand the target audience of their boxing product that moves and adjusts for difficulty.
Gevorkyan said they are fulfilling orders in gaming centers and amusement parks around the world.
With a price tag north of $20,000, there’s not a whole lot of individual purchasers.
“Hotels, apartment buildings, offices looking to give employees an outlet for stress relief or a workout,” Gevorkyan said of the company’s typical clients.
BotBoxer Play was a 2020 CES Innovation Honoree in the Fitness & Sports category and really stood out on the convention floor.
Gevorkyan insists they will raise the bar again next year.
“Technology is advancing so quickly,” he said. “We have a huge list of what we want to do. TIme is the only limit we have. We’re maybe developing something with VR for the ski simulator too. Maybe you’ll find out next year at CES.
“We have a lot of cool things in the works.”
Here were some other finds in the sports realm at this year’s convention:
Sony real-time video analytics
Most people have seen footage of athletes donning motion-capture suits to get computer simulations of their movements.
Sony is now doing it without suits or even sensors.
A booth adjacent to their popular concept car features two professional ping-pong players rallying live, with the action replicated by cartoon representations of them in real time using just cameras to capture the action.
It’s an innovation that can be useful for broadcasts, but also has applications for teams and athletes to use in training.
Hello Caddy
Have you ever wanted to walk the golf course with all the convenience of a caddy yet without that pesky human interaction?
The product, scheduled to debut in mid 2020, carries the player’s clubs and follows them around the course when the remote is kept in their pocket.
“It follows you like a pet,” company rep Michael Kim said.
The product is trained to avoid obstacles and has a GPS system onboard to help the player gauge distances to the hole, green and obstacles. It can also show a flyover of each hole on a tablet.
Hello Caddy’s Michael Kim said courses are putting in order for the smart carts. He said course operators will have the ability to enable players to order food or drinks through the unit on the course as well as direct players to speed up or slow down based on pace of play through the system.
Tugga Golf
Carlos Davila Gil and and his son Carlos Jr. have developed a bluetooth-enabled golf ball that allows players to always be able to locate wayward shots through pairing on an app.
Davila Gil Sr. says he had the idea 20 years ago and technology has finally allowed the development of the product, which will hit the market in the next few months.
There’s still not much the ball can do if you hit it in the water, however.
Autobat and Perfection
Dong Yun Cho presented a pair of products for baseball players that can be used together or separately.
Autobat is an automated tee that feeds balls to five heights and reloads on its own for efficient batting practice. Perfection is a simulated baseball game that has training mode and a more recreational setting.
“The system will allow training mode where it can detect the direction, velocity, angle and distance of the ball on every swing,” Cho said. “That will be ideal for baseball training programs because the kiosk stores all the data for analysis. It also has the functionality to do battle zone mode or home run derbys for more of a competition.”
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.
