# Smart Football

> A low-cost football with sensors inside. Hardware R&D from December 2024 to December 2025, now paused.

- Canonical: https://www.rahuldk.in/projects/smart-football

![The first Smart Football prototype: an open football shell with piezo sensors and a breadboard of wires inside](https://www.rahuldk.in/photos/smart-ball-800.webp)

| | |
|---|---|
| Type | Sports-tech hardware R&D |
| My role | Product designer and R&D lead |
| When | December 2024 to December 2025 |
| Stack | Piezo sensors, Breadboard prototyping, Soldering, App dashboard concepts |

The Smart Football was my attempt to put sensors inside a low-cost football, inspired by professional smart match balls.

## What the R&D covered

- Sensor and component selection.
- Component placement inside the ball, to keep it balanced and playable.
- Bladder, pressure and gas design research.
- Prototype testing.
- Mobile dashboard concepts and sports-data analytics models.

It got me soldering as a complete beginner.

## Where it stands

Smart ball v1 was never finished. The project was paused in December 2025 because of funding constraints, after prototype testing, mentor support and a lot of learning.

## Read more

- [R.I.P. smart ball v1: what smart football sensors taught me](https://www.rahuldk.in/blog/rip-smart-ball-v1)
- [Building football tournament software ruined football for me](https://www.rahuldk.in/blog/veeran-ruined-football-for-me)
- [About Rahul Dhileep Kumar](https://www.rahuldk.in/about)
- [All projects](https://www.rahuldk.in/projects)