Ball

Breathing exercises – in which a person takes slow, deep breaths – have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. Focusing on breathing in this manner can be difficult, however, which is where the PAWS "breathing ball" is designed to come in.

Rugby is a chaotic game at the best of times, so it can be difficult to gauge when illegal actions such as forward passes occur. That's where a new "smart rugby ball" comes in, which is packed with sensors that record its movements.

Nathan Webb and Pasquale Totaro want to make music creation accessible to everyone, and have launched the Oddball to do just that. Combining a very familiar object with wireless tech, digital audio and pressure sensors, their project is essentially a beat maker in a bouncy ball.

​There are already internet-controlled pet toys out there that let users play with their dog or cat when they're not at home. PlayDate, however, is different. It's a ball with a Wi-Fi-connected camera right in it, so users can watch their pets playing from the toy's point of view.​

Under the guise of World Cup fever, scientists across the globe are seizing the opportunity to examine the aerodynamic properties of what will in all likelihood be the most talked-about object on a global scale over the coming weeks, the 2014 World Cup match ball.

Building technology into a round ball appears an emerging trend. Just as the globe turns its focus to next month's World Cup, Adidas is unveiling its miCoach Smart Ball with built-in sensors to track everything from the power of your strike to the finesse of your free kick.

How do you make the humble ball (which has been entertaining people for thousands of years) better? Fill it with tech and make it controllable from a smartphone, obviously. The Sphero 2.0 robotic toy ball is twice as fast and three times as bright as its predecessor.

iFetch can take the human element out of fetch and allows dogs to make their own fun.

For-profit social enterprise organization Uncharted Play has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a energy-harvesting soccer ball named SOCCKET.

The BallCam system allows relatively steady video to be shot from a spinning, airborne football.

MIT researchers have developed a new collapsible engineering structure, inspired by a toy.

TheO ball is designed to hold your phone within its cushioned grasp, allowing you to literally throw your phone around to play games.