IEEE Spectrum October, 2013 - 4

BaCK STOrY_
editor in chief

Susan Hassler, s.hassler@ieee.org

Fore!

executive editor

Glenn Zorpette, g.zorpette@ieee.org
editorial director, digital

Harry Goldstein, h.goldstein@ieee.org
managing editor

ometimes
unusual road-
blocks crop
up when you
test consumer
electronics, as
Senior Editor
Joshua J. Romero
found out when IEEE
Spectrum got the chance
to review the SwingTip
golf training aid. The task
naturally fell to Romero,
who's not an avid golfer
but enjoys a round when
he can. And so we packed
him off with his clubs and
the new gadget to the
busy driving range at New
York City's Chelsea Piers
athletics complex [see "Gadgets for Golfers," in this issue].
The SwingTip is a small black box that clips onto the shaft of a golf club.
The box transmits information about a golfer's swing to an app running on
a nearby iOS device. Setting himself up with an iPad on the second of the
range's four levels, Romero ran through a quick series of 10 swings, aided by
the range's automatic teeing mechanism. But while stepping back through the
data on the iPad, he found that only four swings had been detected. The last of
these showed an animation in which the club seemed to go through a bizarre
set of gyrations, with a peak recorded speed of 204 kilometers per hour.
Checking his club, Romero realized that the SwingTip had detached
midswing. However, it had continued to faithfully transmit information
during its subsequent trajectory, while the software did its best to map
the ballistic flight data to a golfer's motions. Sure enough, when Romero
peered down at the ground far below, he saw "a little black box among
hundreds of golf balls."
It might have been the work of a moment to retrieve a detached device
on a golf course or on a less busy driving range. But the Chelsea Piers
range operates from early morning to midnight, and not even employees
dare venture out amid the nonstop hail of balls. The SwingTip was never
recovered. Romero believes it probably got chewed up by the range's
armored ball-collection truck. We subsequently contacted the SwingTip's
manufacturer, which kindly supplied another unit so Romero could
complete the testing for his article. n

OCT 2013

nOrTh ameriCan

SPeCTrUm.ieee.OrG

senior art director

Mark Montgomery, m.montgomery@ieee.org
senior editors

Stephen Cass (Resources), cass.s@ieee.org
Erico Guizzo (Digital), e.guizzo@ieee.org
Jean Kumagai, j.kumagai@ieee.org
Samuel K. Moore (News), s.k.moore@ieee.org
Tekla S. Perry, t.perry@ieee.org
Joshua J. Romero (Interactive), j.j.romero@ieee.org
Philip E. Ross, p.ross@ieee.org
David Schneider, d.a.schneider@ieee.org
deputy art director Brandon Palacio
photography director Randi Silberman Klett
associate art director Erik Vrielink
associate editors

Ariel Bleicher, a.bleicher@ieee.org
Rachel Courtland, r.courtland@ieee.org
Eliza Strickland, e.strickland@ieee.org
assistant editor Willie D. Jones, w.jones@ieee.org
senior copy editor Joseph N. Levine, j.levine@ieee.org
copy editor Michele Kogon, m.kogon@ieee.org
editorial researcher Alan Gardner, a.gardner@ieee.org
assistant producer, spectrum digital Celia Gorman,
celia.gorman@ieee.org
executive producer, spectrum radio
assistant producer, spectrum radio

Sharon Basco
Francesco Ferorelli,

f.ferorelli@ieee.org
administrative assistants

Ramona Foster, r.foster@ieee.org
Nancy T. Hantman, n.hantman@ieee.org
intern Davey Alba
contributing editors

Evan Ackerman, Mark Anderson, John Blau, Robert N.
Charette, Steven Cherry, Peter Fairley, Mark Harris, David
Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel,
Richard Stevenson, William Sweet, Lawrence Ulrich, Paul Wallich
director, periodicals production services Peter Tuohy
editorial & Web production manager Roy Carubia
senior electronic layout specialist Bonnie Nani
spectrum online
lead developer Kenneth Liu
Web production coordinator Jacqueline L. Parker
multimedia production specialist Michael Spector
editorial advisory board

Susan Hassler, Chair; Gerard A. Alphonse, Marc T. Apter, Francine
D. Berman, Jan Brown, Jason Cong*, Raffaello D'Andrea, Kenneth Y.
Goldberg, Susan Hackwood, Bin He, Erik Heijne, Charles H. House,
Chenming Hu*, Christopher J. James, Ruby B. Lee, John P. Lewis,
Tak Ming Mak, Carmen S. Menoni, David A. Mindell, C. Mohan, Fritz
Morgan, Andrew M. Odlyzko, Harry L. Tredennick III, Sergio Verdú,
Jeffrey M. Voas, William Weihl, Kazuo Yano, Larry Zhang*
* Chinese-language edition
editorial / advertising correspondence

IEEE Spectrum
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responsibility for the substance of articles rests upon
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editor may be excerpted for publication. the publisher
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10.13

citing articles in ieee spectrum IEEE Spectrum publishes an international and a North American edition, as indicated
at the bottom of each page. Both have the same editorial content, but because of differences in advertising, page numbers
may differ. In citations, you should include the issue designation. For example, Dataflow is in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 50, no. 10
(INT), October 2013, p. 68, or in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 50, no. 10 (NA), October 2013, p. 80.

Elizabeth A. Bretz, e.bretz@ieee.org

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photograph by

Randi Silberman Klett

http://SPeCTrUm.ieee.OrG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum October, 2013