Value Proposition
BatVision converts any smartphone into a sub‑millimeter, single‑photo measurement system that delivers continuous, reproducible geometric profiles in seconds, unlocking fast, low-cost, data-driven quality control and performance optimization.
Unmet Need
Precise geometry measurement is critical for a wide variety of industries, such as manufacturing quality control, surface finishing, and personalized equipment. For example, in baseball, bat geometry is critical to swing mechanics and contact quality, yet teams and manufacturers largely rely on sparse manual caliper checks that are slow, labor-intensive, and difficult to scale, or on laser scanners that are prohibitively expensive for routine use. As bat designs diversify (e.g., torpedo barrels vs. traditional shapes), organizations lack a high‑resolution, standardized, and repeatable method to quantify geometry at scale, integrate those measurements into inventory workflows, and link shape to on‑field outcomes. Without precise, efficient measurement, decisions about equipment selection, fitting, and quality assurance are forced to extrapolate from incomplete data, constraining competitive insight and operational efficiency across professional, collegiate, and amateur programs, as well as compliance and manufacturing QA.
Technology Description
BatVision is a smartphone-based computer vision and machine learning pipeline that converts a single photograph into a continuous dimensional profile by segmenting the object, sampling orthogonal cross‑sections, and applying a regression calibration layer (Generalized Additive Models) to translate pixels into physical units while correcting lens distortion and perspective.
Stage of Development
The system has been validated baseball bats used in Major League Baseball with sub‑millimeter accuracy (MAE 0.148 mm; 99.8% within ±0.5 mm), is at TRL 6–7 with a fully operational prototype running on standard smartphones and is ready for immediate commercialization via licensing, SaaS deployment, or collaborative partnerships.
Publication(s)
Code: luh-j/BatVision
News: Johns Hopkins students develop technology to help Baltimore Orioles build better baseball bats - CBS Baltimore; Can Johns Hopkins student researchers help boost Orioles home run numbers?; Torpedo bats: The Orioles were at the forefront of the craze. Here’s how they work. - The Baltimore Banner
