You’ve been dreaming of it, and Michel Narozny has made it happen. Finally, an app for your phone to measure the speed of your fastball, changeup, and breaking pitches! Meet its creator.

BTVF: Who are you, Michel Narozny?

I’m 49 years old, married, and a father of two (a 16-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son). Originally from Moselle, I’ve been living in the Yvelines region near Paris for 19 years. My passion is tennis. I’m currently ranked 4/6, and my best ranking was 2/6 four years ago (I was then among the top 30 French players in the +45 age category).

Graduated from the École Centrale Marseille, I also hold a PhD in Signal Processing from the University of Paris XI Orsay. I have over 25 years of experience in high-tech and defense sectors, working on projects like sonar, telecommunications, radar, and inertial navigation. I currently work for THALES.

BTVF: How did you get into working on radar and phone apps?

My first thoughts on the subject date back to 2007, the year the first iPhone was released. At the time, I was working for a startup in the Paris region where, as a developer, I discovered the potential of this new generation of phones. That’s when the idea of using a smartphone to measure the speed of a tennis ball (baseball came much later…) started to take shape. However, the computing power and camera capabilities were still relatively limited, so I decided to put the project on hold…

A few years later, with smartphones becoming more powerful, it became feasible to get interesting results. I then got back into the project, and after a few years of development, I was able to achieve conclusive results for baseball.

BTVF: Can you explain how it works simply?

In practice, to measure a speed, a user first chooses one of three use cases:

• Device placed on the ground
  • in front of the pitcher
  • to the right or left of the pitcher
• Device mounted on a tripod
• Device held in hand

After throwing the ball, the speed is updated in real-time on the SPEEDUP Live interface inside the app and on the SPEEDUP Baseball Live web interface. Thus, any app holder who has received the SPEEDUP Live code from the pitcher can view the pitch speed in real-time. The pitcher can also activate the voice announcement on their smartphone (enabled by default).

BTVF: What do you expect from the French baseball community to help you grow?

We count on the clubs, the French Baseball Federation, and specialized merchants to help us grow.

Clubs

Our exchanges with the clubs help us understand the sport better. From our initial discussions, it appears that the app could be interesting for working on speed, effects, and accuracy. Indeed, in addition to measuring speed, the app generates a 3D trajectory of the ball from which information such as the pitch angle and the deviation of the trajectory from the smartphone’s main axis can be extracted. In a few months, the app should allow measuring the ball’s rotation in 3D, thus enabling work on mastering effects. Ultimately, the goal is for each player to use their own smartphone to do specific work under the coaches’ supervision.

French Baseball and Softball Federation

The French Baseball Federation can help us in several ways:

• National Technical Directorate: In-depth exchanges with national baseball technical experts will help us progress and offer a quality and recognized product to clubs and baseball enthusiasts.
• Development of baseball in France: To reach as many young people as possible in France, we will approach the National Education system by offering schools a “discovery kit” (app + ball + baseball net). Beyond its fun aspect (to be used during fairs or sports sessions, for example), the kit’s goal is to spark vocations and contribute to the development of baseball in France. The federation can probably help make this possible.
• Technical innovations: We are currently working on a box that can contain a smartphone and is intended to be placed under the baseball field (for example, at the pitcher’s and catcher’s positions). The collected data (ball speed, rotation speeds, etc.) could be made available to coaches and/or the public during a game. To advance this project, we will need the federation’s support, especially for aspects related to the homologation of such a system.

Specialized Merchants

Specialized baseball merchants can help us grow by promoting the app to their customers. We are convinced that the app can be a trigger for other purchases (balls, baseball nets, etc.). By promoting the app, merchants can also benefit from SPEEDUP Groups, an exchange platform integrated into the app that can help them in their customer loyalty efforts.

BTVF: What are the different features that work and those you wish to develop later?

SPEEDUP Radar

This feature turns a smartphone into a speed radar. The operating principle and instructions are described in detail earlier in the article.
This feature is the core of the app, and we are constantly looking to improve it. For example, we are currently studying the possibility of connecting an external camera to an Android smartphone to increase the maximum measurable speed.

SPEEDUP Analytics

With « SPEEDUP Analytics, » the user has permanent access to their last 100 speed measurements. For each measurement, the following information is provided:

• The date and time of the measurement
• The use case: handheld device, placed on the ground, or fixed on a tripod
• The ball’s speed relative to the ground
• The angle the ball’s trajectory makes with the ground
• Images of the ball captured by your device’s camera
• A 3D view of the ball’s trajectory
• 2D views of the ball’s trajectory

Beyond its fun aspect, a 3D visualization can also provide valuable information about the quality of the pitch.

SPEEDUP Live

The SPEEDUP Live technology allows broadcasting speed measurements in real-time on multiple devices (TV, laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.).
The speed appears instantly on the SPEEDUP Baseball Live web interface and on the SPEEDUP Live dashboard inside the app.
Each user receives a unique SPEEDUP Live code they can use to make their speed measurements visible to members of their community. A link to your SPEEDUP Live code is in the app.
The SPEEDUP Live technology allows creating/joining communities of players who want to share their speed measurements. For example, you can use the SPEEDUP Live technology to set up a speed challenge.
Link to the SPEEDUP Live web interface:

Speedup Baseball Live

SPEEDUP Groups

A SPEEDUP group is a community of baseball enthusiasts who want to share their passion for the game. Whether you are an individual, a baseball association, a sports store, or a baseball coach, SPEEDUP groups can help you create a whole new community or develop an existing one. Here are some examples of SPEEDUP groups:

Baseball clubs: after creating a SPEEDUP group, a baseball club will have the opportunity to publish information within the SPEEDUP Baseball app to keep its members informed about past and upcoming events, team results, membership renewals, etc. The chat application integrated into the SPEEDUP Baseball app can be used by group members to communicate with each other on topics of their choice.

Sports stores: a sports store can take advantage of the SPEEDUP Baseball app to develop its business through advertising and offer group members the opportunity to make great savings on their sports equipment purchases.

Baseball coaches: baseball coaches will be able to take advantage of the SPEEDUP Baseball app to develop their activities by connecting with their students via a SPEEDUP group.

Individuals: anyone wishing to form a local community of baseball enthusiasts will have the opportunity to create a SPEEDUP group that will allow them to share their passion for the game.

By choosing SPEEDUP, you can create strong bonds with your community while offering them the best speed radar available today on a smartphone/tablet.

SPEEDUP Hot Spots

A SPEEDUP Hot Spot is a place where SPEEDUP app users gather to train and/or participate in a speed challenge.
Users within a radius of about 25 km (15 miles) around your current position and who have agreed to share their location and email address are visible on the SPEEDUP Hot Spots map.
A green (resp. orange) annotation indicates that the corresponding user is online (resp. offline).
The last speed measurement, the best speed, and the status (online or offline) of users are updated in real-time.
For each SPEEDUP Hot Spot, an email address is provided so that other app users can contact the user who created the Hot Spot.
Please note that sharing location and email address can be canceled at any time.

BTVF: What can we wish you?

Our motto since the beginning of the adventure has always been “technological innovation for the greatest number.” The smartphone is probably the object that best embodies this maxim:

• It is a concentrate of technology with computing power comparable to or even greater than that of a desktop computer and sensors (cameras, gyrometers, accelerometers, etc.) with terrifying precision
• It is present everywhere on the planet in the pocket or hand of every human being

Our goal is to become the world leader in high-precision smartphone apps. Sports is an area where technologies have been present for several years (radars, hawk-eye, etc.) but remain inaccessible to the general public. With SPEEDUP Baseball, we aim to put a radar, and much more, in the pocket of every baseball enthusiast, and all at a price accessible to all. So wish us to achieve this goal within the next five years!