Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Slow Motion Ball

 Your throws look like a scene from The Matrix
  (+6)
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The ball is actually a very small quad-copter with a spherical cage around it that lets you throw it like a ball.

On board sensors and calculators project the trajectory from the force and angle of your throw and then fly that path at a much slower speed than it would have traveled at if it were a regular ball.

Additional settings could be "Zig-Zag", "Corkscrew", "Frame- By-Frame" (where it flies a few feet, stops, flies a few feet, stops...)

You could also make it go faster.

—doctorremulac3, Jul 24 2015

You could achieve this... http://www.uta.edu/...lection/101018.html
This Idea reminds me of a story I read lots of years ago. I'm fairly sure the "double curve" in the story is not actually possible --but with ball-shaped slow drone, you could do it easily. [Vernon, Jul 25 2015]

And if you doubt the technical ability of these things to do the job... https://www.youtube...watch?v=3CR5y8qZf0Y
...don't. [doctorremulac3, Jul 25 2015]

And by the way, all quad copters need to be in spherical cages anyway. https://www.youtube...watch?v=5B3X6EvZ2XM
Simply to increase their fly-ability in the real world. [doctorremulac3, Jul 25 2015]

With a geodesic cage (I think that's what you'd call it) these things can go anywhere. https://www.youtube...watch?v=DUGEjQdoylY
[doctorremulac3, Jul 25 2015]

Bullet Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_time
[theircompetitor, Jul 25 2015]

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       Initial velocity may be a problem with a kid with a strong arm. The size of the ball would dedicate the power of the quad-copter. Nice though.
—wjt, Jul 25 2015
   

       Yea, the first thing the ball would do would put all 4 motors into full braking mode to slow the thing down.   

       Ya know, another way to do this might be just to have air resistance handle the slow down task. Have a kid's balloon with a steerable ducted fan running down the center with a little CPU on board that does the navigation. As anybody who's thrown a balloon knows it basically stops in mid air as soon as it leaves your hand.   

       I like the quadcopter solution better though. There are very few challenges in life that can't be solved by computer controlled micro aircraft.
—doctorremulac3, Jul 25 2015
   

       Totally. By the way, please see the link showing how clever these things are getting.
—doctorremulac3, Jul 25 2015
   


 

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