- Someone used an AirPod to record flying disc throwing stats
- Tested with throws up to 45 mph and no damage
- Strava-compatible export for dedicated disc launchers
One of Apple’s most famous commercials opened with “To the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in square holes. The ones who see things differently.” The text didn’t explicitly say “to those who stick AirPods on frisbees,” but I think Steve Jobs would have approved of the Redditor who did just that.
Paul Tracer, aka Disastrous-Body-297, invented a use for AirPods that I’m sure no one at Apple ever considered. He used them to level a standard frisbee and to stream data in real time. It can even export sessions to the Strava app.
Airpods can track frisbee throws
from r/airpods
Why Upgrading a Frisbee with AirPods Isn’t Completely Crazy
As the intrepid inventor explains: “The AirPod transmits motion data to the phone and detects/analyzes throws in real time. With optional voice feedback in the second AirPod. It measures speed, revolutions, flight time, number of throws. It also measures heart rate (either with the latest AirPods or with an external heart rate).
You can try it for yourself: it’s the sports measurement app Kinapod, which, according to its creator, is currently undergoing the approval process by Apple. The AirPod is literally just placed in a hole created at the dead center of the drive. Tracer says: “Just drill a hole in the center of the disc and that’s it! You will be surprised at its reliability. The AirPod stem is not entirely cylindrical, so it does not slide. »
The result is a wealth of data: average speed, maximum rotation, total flight time, etc.
There’s a market for this kind of information: as one Reddit author, lenfantsuave, jokes: “Technology record: I’ll never recover financially.” Tech Disc is a company that makes a line of disc golf launch monitors priced at $299.99 that track multiple metrics and flight paths in order to help players improve their game, and a member of the company joined the online conversation to praise Tracer’s ingenuity.
Tracer’s tracker is more of a “fun thing” than a serious setup, not least because the expensive earbuds aren’t the most cost-effective gyroscopic sensors to attach to a Frisbee; the risk of damage or destruction is clearly quite high, even if AirPods have survived so far according to Tracer.
Tracer is currently talking to Redditors on forums like r/discgolf about alternative, more affordable ways to collect data. And in the meantime, the AirPod/Frisbee combination has made me and other Redditors happy: “It’s very cool,” says Claybythebay9, while GrandMasterFlex believes, and I agree, that “it’s really crazy.”
As Apple’s ad says, “while some may call them crazy, we see genius.” Or as SilverMelodyPrincess says in the Reddit thread: “Apple accidentally created the most sophisticated Frisbee stats tracker and I’m here for it.”
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