Behind the Design: SwingVision

When Swupnil Sahai started creating SwingVision, helium had nary app-building acquisition — but he’d played a batch of tennis.

“The archetypal thought was, ‘Maybe we tin usage the accelerometer and gyroscope connected Apple Watch to fig retired however accelerated I’m swinging, and possibly we tin usage the Apple Watch surface to support score,’” says Sahai from his workspace successful the Bay Area. “That was truly it.”

The app was a existent passionateness task for Sahai, who jumped into SwingVision beauteous overmuch cold. “Although I’d programmed successful different languages, Swift seemed overmuch much approachable, truthful I thought 'Maybe I tin prime this up connected my own.’” He not lone picked it up, helium recovered the learning curve truthful speedy and enjoyable that helium was staying up aboriginal and aboriginal to plunge into SwingVision and Swift. “I was gathering successful Xcode connected time one,” helium says. “I don’t deliberation I’ve ever had truthful overmuch amusive working.”

Today, SwingVision has go the definitive tennis app, and an unthinkable illustration of the combined powerfulness of cameras, instrumentality learning, and the conception of filling a need. It’s beautifully and exclusively designed for iOS, with an easy-to-navigate UI that makes it accessible to some officially sanctioned matches and radical practicing connected the weekends.

It’s besides go an integral portion of the tennis community. SwingVision is present utilized for enactment calling, the definitive accidental connected whether a shot is successful oregon retired — a telephone that’s inactive near to players themselves. “It’s uncommon to person judges connected the tribunal successful tennis,” says Sahai. “In baseball, you person umpires. Even middle-school hoops has referees. Somehow successful tennis you person to bash everything yourself.”

I was gathering successful Xcode connected time one. I don’t deliberation I’ve ever had truthful overmuch amusive working.

Founded successful 2015 by Sahai, on with adjacent person and existent CTO Richard Hsu, the app couldn’t beryllium simpler. Point your iPhone oregon iPad camera astatine the tribunal and SwingVision tells you however accelerated you’re serving, the consistency of your shots, and however to signifier up your posture and footwork. It does truthful by utilizing precocious instrumentality learning to way shots (a beauteous intensive process). “It allows you to telephone lines much accurately than you could with your ain eyes. But if you don’t grounds astatine 60 fps, you won’t adjacent spot the shot bounce — it conscionable moves excessively fast,” helium says. “Of course, 1080p video is very, precise precocious resolution. It’s thing similar 2 cardinal pixels that each person to beryllium processed 60 times a second. We had to innovate a batch to marque these models arsenic thin arsenic possible. This app is fundamentally not imaginable without Neural Engine.”

SwingVision, present powered by a squad of 23, has evolved rather a bit. Players tin present watercourse matches unrecorded — some the video and the on-screen information — and afterward, the app creates an easy shareable item reel. One of its latest features sets up “target zones” connected the tribunal to assistance players signifier their serves — a large illustration of however the video-centric app integrates tightly with Apple Watch. “Serving is traditionally the astir boring happening to practice,” laughs Sahai. “So we gamified it with antithetic dependable effects and a advancement show connected Apple Watch. Even with each our video, Apple Watch is inactive captious due to the fact that it elevates the experience.”

In summation to driving the occurrence of his app, Sahai shares his improvement expertise by continuing to thatch a UC Berkeley people called Data 8: Foundations of Data Science — presently the largest people connected campus. He’s known arsenic “the SwingVision guy.” “Sometimes I’ll spot a station from a pupil that says, ‘Wait, you made that?’” helium laughs. “The assemblage determination is precise supportive.”

Learn much astir SwingVision

Download SwingVision from the App Store

Behind the Design is simply a bid that explores plan practices and philosophies from each of the winners of the Apple Design Awards. In each story, we spell down the screens with the developers and designers of these award-winning apps and games to observe however they brought their singular creations to life.

Explore much of the 2023 Behind the Design series