A Futurist Vision: Kimera’s Nigel AGI - Assisting Golfers in the year 2030

Today, we jump ahead to the year 2030, as I look at one of the many millions of possible benefits to humanity that the Nigel AGI ecosystem will provide to our everyday lives. Our scenario takes place in the year 2030 on a golf course - almost the same as today’s courses, but with some serious technology upgrades. Golf Clubs and clothing have also received some, shall we say, enhancements.

Firstly, let us run through some assumptions…

• The Nigel AGI has reached a modest level of maturity
• Sensor technology development has reached new heights, with wearables, consumables and a range of other embedded sensors becoming common in most aspects of daily life.
• As per today’s golfing rules, assistive technologies are only allowed during practice and social rounds, not in competition play.

Meet John.

John is a 30-something golfer with a 15-handicap, who is looking to move up into A-grade and get his handicap down into single digits. He isn’t overly tech savvy, but he no longer needs to be, with Nigel AGI embedded in his mobile phone - Nigel looks after most of John’s day-to-day technology-related interactions, which includes calendar management, shopping, social media interactions, dating matchups, health monitoring, and so much more.

The most exciting thing for John, at present, is the range of new golf products that have come onto the market. Embedded sensor technology has allowed golf club manufacturers to create golf clubs and other products with a suite of embedded sensors that monitor club-head speed and direction, angle of ball impact, hand position on the grips, and swing curvature. Golf Balls with built-in sensors are also now available, which allow tracking of flight path, ball spin, speed and direction.

These technologies, coupled with a range of wearable sensors in shoes and clothing allows Nigel to figure out golfer stance, ball position between the feet, arm-flex, and head position.

For the serious golfer, when you now buy a set of golf clubs, you have the option of buying an identical sensor augmented set of practice clubs. Each Golf club has the same weight and balance, but has a rechargeable battery in the handle, which powers the sensor array in the clubs; the golf ball and wearables can likewise be changed, giving sufficient power for 5-hours of practice play. When you buy the equipment, you pair it with your Nigel AGI, so that receipt and analysis of the sensor data can take place.

One significant boon to golfers is the geolocation data sensor in the ball, which allows the player to find their ball in even the deepest of rough (or even a swim, if you dare).

John steps onto the first tee, grabs his driver, and has a couple of practice swings. If he chooses, he can immediately bring up the Nigel-integrated Golf-Assist App on his phone and have a look at those practice swings. From this he can check if he is properly warmed up and swinging the club in his normal rhythm.

John sets the ball on the tee and checks into the Golf-Assist Course Manager, which loads the Hole 1 information (a dog-leg par 4) for the course he’s playing today. Nigel communicates with the wind sensors out on the course to provide wind speed and direction information and shows an overlay of the first hole, with a suggested club and point on the fairway that John should aim at.

He makes a nice shot to the turning point of the fairway, and follows it up with a good approach to the back of the green. Putting, or more specifically, reading the green, is where John needs the most improvement. Just like in the golf computer games of the earlier decades, Golf-Assist brings up a gradient overlay of the green onto John’s phone screen. He can even put it into Augmented Reality mode and, using the phone camera, look at the actual putting surface on the screen. Nigel grabs the geolocation data from the ball, and plots a suggested putt onto the overlay.

John pulls out his putter and lines up the shot. First, a couple of practice swings to figure out the how much power he should use for the putt. He swings… from his pocket, there comes a harsh beep - not enough power. He swings again… two harsh beeps - too much power. He adjusts his swing power on his third practice swing and his phone makes a nice ‘bing’ sound - Nigel is of the opinion that if John uses that much power in his putt AND takes the correct line, he will make the putt.

He takes the shot… Birdie! What a great way to start the round.

John has been using these new golfing technologies for a little over three months now, and in that time Nigel, via the Golf-Assist app, has monitored and recorded every aspect of his golfing game.

John now has access to a complete breakdown of this data:

• average hitting distances for every club in his bag
• propensity to slice or fade
• ball impact position on the club face
• swing data
• putting data

This data can be printed out into booklet form, and while John’s practice clubs, app, and embedded clothing can’t be used during competition play, John’s booklet of club and course data can be used, much the same way a caddy gives club selection and other advice during professional play.

I see John reaching a single figure handicap in the not too distant future, and his goal to play A-grade will be a reality.

If this sounds like something you’d like to get involved with, then you can get more information on the project at their website, https://kimera.ai.

If you have further questions, the team has a Telegram chat on http://t.me/kimeraAGI.