Basketball launching apparatus providing next pass indications, related systems and methods

A basketball launching apparatus providing next pass indications, said basketball launching apparatus comprising:

• a structural framework;
• a housing connected to said structural framework and comprising an aperture located at a forward surface thereof;
• a throwing mechanism connected to said structural framework and located within the housing, wherein said housing and said throwing mechanism are interconnected and configured for rotational movement to face the aperture in various directions and launch the basketballs through the aperture and toward each of various candidate locations for a player to catch and shoot towards a basketball goal;
• a touch sensitive user interface connected to a side surface of the housing such that the user interface rotates with the housing;
• a non-touch sensitive electronic display connected to the forward surface of the housing such that the electronic display rotates with the housing;
• and
• a controller in electronic communication with said throwing mechanism, said user interface, and said electronic display, wherein said controller is configured to:
• cause a visual depiction of a basketball playing area including a basketball goal, a baseline, and a three-point arc to be generated at the user interface;
• while the visual depiction is generated at the user interface, receive user input, by direct physical touch input, from the user interface indicating a subset of the candidate locations for basketballs to be passed as part of a practice session and an order for the passes;
• cause an icon for each of the subset of the candidate locations selected as part of said user input to be generated at the user interface such that one or more icons are generated, with an indication at each of the one or more icons of the order for passes indicated in said user input;
• command said throwing mechanism to pass at least one basketball to each of the subset of the candidate locations in the order in accordance with the user input (“session passes”);
• and
• cause a second visual depiction of the basketball playing area including the basketball goal, the baseline, and the three-point arc to be generated at the electronic display at least substantially matching the visual depiction generated at the user interface, and before causing said throwing mechanism to provide each of the session passes, on a pass-by-pass-basis, cause a respective next pass indicator comprising a graphical basketball icon to be generated at the second visual depiction at a location visually corresponding to a respective next one of the session passes without any of the one or more icons and without additional ones of the graphical basketball icon.

A basketball launching apparatus providing next pass indications, said basketball launching apparatus comprising:

• a structural framework;
• a throwing mechanism connected to said structural framework, configured to launch the basketballs toward locations for a player to catch and shoot towards a basketball goal, and configured for rotational movement such that a launch direction of the basketballs changes as the throwing mechanism rotates;
• an electronic display which rotates with the throwing mechanism to face the launch direction;
• a user interface, which is touch sensitive;
• and
• a controller in electronic communication with said throwing mechanism, said user interface, and said electronic display, wherein said controller is configured to:
• cause a visual depiction of a basketball playing area including a basketball goal, a baseline, and a three-point arc to be generated at the user interface and while generated, receive user input data generated by way of direct, physical touches from a user at the user interface at positions corresponding to a subset of the locations for the basketballs to be passed as part of a practice session;
• cause an icon to be generated at the visual depiction at the user interface for each of the subset of the locations in accordance with the user input data such that one or more icons are displayed;
• command said throwing mechanism to pass at least one basketball to each of the subset of the locations in accordance with the user input (“session passes”);
• and
• before and/or while commanding said throwing mechanism to provide each of the session passes, on a pass-by-pass basis for each of the session passes, cause a respective next pass indicator comprising a graphical symbol to be displayed at said visual depiction at said electronic display at a respective location visually corresponding to a respective next one of the session passes and cause a single one of the one or more icons to be displayed at the user interface corresponding to the next one of the session passes as part of the next pass indicator without a remainder of the one or more icons.