Smart athletic training system

Abstract

A system for evaluating and/or improving the performance characteristics of an athlete, such as speed, agility and quickness, includes a plurality of training objects that can be arranged on a drill circuit, wherein each training object includes a radio frequency transceiver for communicating with another training object, a visual display for signaling an athlete, a sensor for detecting the athlete's position relative to the training object, and a battery with required conductors for powering the radio frequency transceiver, visual display and sensor.

1 . A training system for evaluating and improving athletic skills, comprising:
 at least two training objects, each training object having a radio frequency transmitter/receiver for communicating with another training object, a visual display, a sensor for detecting an athlete's position relative to the training object, and a battery and electrical conductors for powering the radio frequency transmitter/receiver, visual display, and sensor.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , in which the radio frequency transmitter/receiver is a Bluetooth device. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , in which the radio frequency transmitter/receiver is a Wi-Fi device. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a mobile computing device executing an application enabling communication with the training objects. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , in which the training objects are cones. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , in which the sensor is a proximity sensor. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , in which the proximity sensor is an infrared radiation proximity sensor. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , in which the sensor is a motion detector. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , in which the motion sensor is an optical sensor. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , in which the sensor is a tactile sensor. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , in which the training objects are nestable. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a charger for recharging the battery. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , in which the training objects are nestable and include electrical contacts that facilitate concurrent electrical charging of a plurality of nested training objects. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a mobile computing device executing an application enabling communication with the training objects and with a computer vision system. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1 , in which the visual display on the training object is a dot matrix display. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , in which the dot matrix display comprises a sufficient number of dots arranged in rows and columns to facilitate display of at least any one alphabetical or numeric character.