Sports

Smartpeed multi-lane timing system offers reactive training

By Emily Clark

00:34 October 24, 2007 PDT

October 24, 2007 A wireless, multi-lane sports measurement and training system designed to assess critical aspects of sports performance including speed, endurance, race-pacing, reaction time and decision making in all land-based sports has reached U.S shores. Read More

New speed-climbing record set on El Capitan

By Noel McKeegan

02:29 October 17, 2007 PDT

October 17, 2007 It’s not exactly new technology, but the human body is still the most impressive piece of hardware on the planet - and when it attains spectacular new milestones like this one, we see it as worthy of our readers attention. Alexander and Thomas Huber have set a new speed-climbing record on the Nose of El Capitan – scaling the famous rock face in Yosemite National Park in a time of 2hr 45min 45sec. Read More

ATC 2K Waterproof Action Cam for outdoor adventurers

By Emily Clark

23:46 October 14, 2007 PDT

October 15, 2007 The ATC 2K Waterproof Action Cam is a ruggedized, fully contained device that delivers full color digital video in three resolutions - from 640 x 480 to 160 x 120 - at either 30 frames per second for smooth playback or 15 frames per second to increase recording time. Released in the US late last year, theATC 2K has now reached Australian shores at a cost of AUD$199. Read More

Tiny body sensor provides real-time athlete monitoring

By Emily Clark

14:37 September 13, 2007 PDT

September 14, 2007 Real-time athlete monitoring is now firmly entrenched as an essential tool for elite athletes, with a growing array of sports monitoring systems available for both top-level sportspeople and your average fitness fanatic. This new body sensor currently under development at Imperial College promises a new level of usability by virtue of its form – the cufflink sized device clips behind the ear so as not to impede performance and delivers extensive metrics on posture, stride length, step frequency, acceleration and the body's response to shock waves. Read More

Real-time swing coaching - iTrainer Golf System

By Noel McKeegan

May 30, 2007 UPDATED - NEW IMAGES - The sheer volume of literature produced with the aim of perfecting the golf swing could fill entire libraries, but the problem has always been how to successfully translate this information - or advice from a coach - into your own game. iTrainer Golf provides a solution through real-time analysis and swing correction. Using a Bluetooth module attached to the club, the sophisticated system uses 3D sensors to measure key aspects of your swing, compares them with an optimum swing profile and provides immediate feedback via a wireless headset. Read More

Why the America's Cup is the oldest and richest prize in sport

By Mike Hanlon

May 22, 2007 In a fascinating study, Allianz, the main sponsor of BMW ORACLE Racing, has released details of a report into the economic impact of participating, winning and hosting the America's Cup, the oldest trophy in international sport. The report takes into account a range of factors such as infrastructure investment, international visitors, media, sponsor, business, construction, accommodation, hospitality, retail, entertainment, transport and logistics and the conclusion is that it provides a massive fiscal injection. The report makes interesting reading. If Alinghi won the Cup and took it to Dubai, the economic impact for Dubai would be US$10 Billion. If BMW ORACLE Racing were to win the Cup and take it to either San Francisco or Newport the corresponding economic impact would be US$9.9 B or US$4.5 B. Total economic return for hosting the 33rd America's Cup in Auckland, New Zealand would reach US$1.75 B, however Emirates Team New Zealand could expect to generate increased revenues if it chose to host the event in Dubai. Total economic return from Luna Rossa winning and then hosting the America's Cup in Genoa, Italy would be in the region of US$3.75 B. Right now, the most likely scenarios involve Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand will fight out the final where they will win the right to take on Alinghi. Read More

Eball sports simulator goes mobile and inflatable

By Loz Blain

May 18, 2007 You may recall our enthusiasm last year when we reported on eballgames and its development of an interface between a real ball and ball games – think of it as a CHI (Computer Human Interface) for any real world ball game and you’re close. Motion and speed sensors take your kick, throw or golf swing and play out the results on the big screen, for better or worse. The crowd will roar or express their disappointment, and the commentator gives you a pat on the back or a serve for missing. The ball goes into a net and is ready for the next player to have a go. It's simple, quick fun and it continually breaks records for drawing crowds wherever it is installed. Now the company has taken its VR sports simulator and developed it into a number of inflatable structures so the promotional killer-app can be quickly set up anywhere, indoors or outdoors. Eballgames is already working on many different sports and is keen to discuss development opportunities with interested parties. We see it as the ultimate Wii peripheral for kids that want to play ball games. Indeed, there’s plenty of opportunity for the development of remedial and skills development games using this technology. Read More

Real-time athlete monitoring - the future of sport

By Gizmag Team

On-the-fly physiological monitoring of athletes is developing to a stage where an elite sports coaching box is looking more and more like a Formula One garage, each player being constantly monitored to ensure maximum performance while avoiding injuries. Speed and conditioning expert Dr Adrian Faccione, founder of GPSports talks to us about the cutting edge of elite athlete management, and the amazing future technologies that are now in development. The original 35 minute MP3 of the interview with Dr Adrian Faccione is available here. Read More

Cooling glove invigorates overheated athletes - and also delivers training performance gains

By Loz Blain

May 9, 2007 While traditional body cooling systems such as ice vests, wet towels and misting fans may feel like they're working to the benefit of the user, they're actually quite ineffective at reducing the body's core temperature, as they work against the body's natural insulation and heat retention systems. Through extensive research into mammalian heat regulation systems, AVAcore has developed a simple, portable device that effects heat exchange to the body core extremely quickly. You don't necessarily feel cooler, you just feel completely refreshed and less fatigued - and the system is producing some remarkable and unexpected results for athletes. Read More

Bodywall finding application in all sports

By Mike Hanlon

March 21, 2007 The Bodywall is designed to assist athletes to stretch effectively, with its combination of high-adhesion gloves and shoes and high-tech wall surface offering spiderman-like capabilities. It is so effective at stretching the muscles an athlete uses in any particular sport that when we first wrote it up last September, we forecast it would become part of the training regime of all athletes. The reason it is applicable to all sports, and hence a generic sporting product is that it achieves its goals using the wall, gravity and the human body - the only common element in every sport. As the worldwide interest in the product has blossomed since our article, thye man who conceived Bodywall, Chris Toal, has seen it used in a fascinating variety of ways to achieve stretching and exercise in different sports. The company is now developing aids so that the Bodywall can be used even more specifically - see the images here and here and here. Read More

Merrell Sports sandal

By Mike Hanlon

October 25, 2006 A new shoe from Merrell caught our attention the other day and to say we were blown away with the look of the shoe is an understatement – somewhere between a sandal and a sports shoe, it’s a sandal with hiking boot support and the on-demand advantage of an athletic construction. Beyond that, the Chameleon II web is aimed at a target consumer “with multi-ambitious outdoor aims, who frequently shifts speed, sites and steepness of terrain.” Not much more is known at this stage other than a US$90 price. Read More

Sporting gloves and boots with 16X times more grip in the dry and 8X in the wet

By Mike Hanlon

October 25, 2006 There’s nothing as important as a competitive edge in the high-stakes game of world class sport and the recent launch of a new manufacturer in the sportswear industry with a seeming significant advantage will be interesting to watch. Simon Skirrow has spent three decades in the global sports industry, including many years at Adidas in charge of global marketing, promotions, product and sales, and his new company, SS Sportswear was established less than three years ago to bring its Nomis grip technologies to market. Independent tests show that Nomis Control Leather Technology gives up to 16 times more grip and control on the ball in the dry and eight times more grip and control when the leather gets wet. Not surprisingly, quite a few professionals have trialed the technology and a few have walked away from lucrative contracts with competitor products to stay with the Nomis technology, most notably Liverpool star Harry Kewell amongst more than 40 professionals that have begun wearing the boots. Nomis is available in both boots and gloves in the UK, USA, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the internet and the company is seeking further international distributors. Adding weight to the professionals who have adopted the new technology, two of NOMIS' boot designs took first and second place in the 2006 Soccer International Magazine Boot Test, beating big-name brand competitors including Adidas, Nike, Puma, Reebok and Umbro. Both NOMIS boots scored top marks for comfort, stability/manoeuvrability, touch/feel and received a perfect score for the 'value for money' category. Read More

NO ban on Hypoxic Training

By Mike Hanlon

September 20, 2006 The Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has decided not to ban Hypoxic Training systems and has not added artificially-induced hypoxic conditions to the 2007 List. The Committees found that the method was performance enhancing, determined that the methodology was contrary to the spirit of sport, raised some concerns but was inconclusive about the method's threat to athlete health. A substance or method may, but is not required to, be added to the Prohibited List if it meets two of these three criteria. There’s been a lot of discussion regarding the preliminaries for this decision and the subsequent misinformation surrounding the committee's determination that Hypoxic Training is contrary to the spirit of sport. Here are a few excellent resources for those whose mind is not yet made up: Interview with Dr John Hellemans of the New Zealand Academy of Sport South, links to WADA submissions from various authorities, and an excellent letter from Doriane L. Coleman , Professor of Law at Duke Law School, and an affiliate of Duke Law School's Center for Sports Law and Policy. Read More

Interfacing real world ball skills with the computer game

By Mike Hanlon

August 21, 2006 The Computer Human Interface (CHI) comes in many different guises, and has come a long way since we punched holes in cards with paperclips. Indeed, games appear to be the key laboratory for the CHI as we continually see new ways of getting real world and virtual world to mix in a computer game. In recent times we’ve seen such interesting game interfaces as the Bodypad, Xboard, Entertaible,, the mental typrewriter, and the Virtusphere and now we’re really impressed with ICE’s Striker Pro which is a soccer striking game where the player takes a penalty kick at a success goal – just the World Cup was decided. The machine records the speed and angle of the soccer ball after it is kicked and reads the information into the game in real time so a virtual ball is kicked into the game with the same power and trajectory for an incredibly realistic experience, complete with goalie histrionics, umpires call and crowd feedback. The machine retails for US$11,000 and the level of difficulty can be adjusted from two year old all the way to world cup professional. Now the technology used to create the Striker Pro is being adapted to other sports and the developers of the Striker Pro, eballgames is seeking distribution partners wishing to develop games for other football codes, golf, baseball, hockey, tennis or any other sport. “We have been getting it all working just right for the last few years and we now know we can build the interface and the software for any sport, and deliver 100 machines on time, so now we are seeking people to work with around the world,” said eballgames founder Tony Course. Read More

World’s first fully customised football boot

By Mike Hanlon

April 11, 2006 Rapid manufacturing and rapid prototyping machinery is not new, and has been written about many times across these pages – in essence, these machines print 3D objects in the same way an inkjet printer works. Each time we run such a story, it is extraordinarily well read as a high proportion of our readers explore the latest developments in the process. Now it seems, the rapid manufacturing concept will yield a new era in manufacturing products for individuals based on three dimensional scans of their body – garments, helmets, or boots that fit just one person perfectly. British company P2L has announced a football boot designed uniquely for the individual player using selective laser sintering. The Assassin is the name of the new soccer boot featuring laser sintered outsoles and hand-crafted one-piece leather uppers. Each boot is sculpted to the individual's foot. The upper is made of exclusively sourced calfskin from Italy which can be manipulated using sophisticated technology to adapt colour, appearance and function to the athlete's needs. Read More

A new breed of computer human interface for sports video game fans

By Mike Hanlon

March 22, 2006 From the time the first steering wheel controller was hooked to a computer, the future of video game controllers grew exponentially larger. Whatever the game being played, there was bound to be something that could be manufactured that would enhance the realism of the experience. Qmotions is a company devoted to creating new kinds of interactive experiences that combine real-world physicality with the immersive virtual environments found in computer and console video games and at last month’s American International Toy Fair 2006 it rolled out several new such interfaces, most notably its Xboard (for surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and windsurfing video games), and Qmotions-Fun Fitness, a new device that converts recumbent bikes into video game machines, offering a compelling way to get fit and play games at the same time. There’s also a golf and a baseball controller, offering a diverse range of indoor fun for otherwise outdoor activities. Read More

Scientifically-designed bedrooms offer athletes a competitive advantage in Torino

By Mike Hanlon

February 27, 2006 On the basis that sleep is so important and so basic that it could make the difference between winning the gold or the silver at the Olympic Games, a unique partnership has evolved for the Olympic Winter Games now taking place in Torino. With a view to giving U.S. Olympians a competitive advantage, Hilton Hotels combined with Alertness Solutions to optimize their sleep environment by incorporating a number of critical elements including enhanced bed size and bedding, a usable work area and an effective wake-up mechanism. Working with Dr. Mark Rosekind, a former NASA scientist and president of Alertness Solutions, Hilton modified 160 resident athlete dorm rooms last October at the Colorado Springs U.S. Olympic Training Center to help increase the athletes' alertness and reaction time for peak performance. Read More

New suit for athletes offers improved energy output and muscle management

By Mike Hanlon

February 20, 2006 Adidas has debuted an athletic second skin at the Turin winter Olympics which it claims offers a significant improvement in energy output of the wearer. In controlled laboratory tests conducted together with the University of Calgary, the new Clima TechFit cross-country suit offers an average 5.3% improvement in energy output and 1.1% faster sprint time when measured over 30 metres. Most importantly, the tests measured a 1.3% reduction in oxygen consumption when wearing the new suit. The suit works by using compression strips that link the legs and the upper body with the power centre of the body. The suit employs a number of technologies to work its magic, one of which involves the compression strips supporting leg muscles and reducing muscle vibration and oscillation, thus reducing energy loss and muscle fatigue for better “muscle management.” The power bands embodied in the suit along key muscle groups contract and expand together with the muscles and thereby store energy when stretching and return energy when contracting back. Through the linking and interaction of all muscles, the suit enables greater efficiency to be achieved. Read More

Sports bra monitors heart rate with built-in heart monitor

By Mike Hanlon

December 23, 2005 We’ve written a lot about heart monitoring and the advances in monitoring technologies over the last few years, reporting on Adidas’ Project Fusion, the BodyBugg, Garmin’s system for cyclists, Dual Sports combined heart rate monitor and MP3 player and Polar’s RS200sd Running Computer. With the exception of the first two, all of these monitors require the wearing of a chest strap and while this is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable enough for men, it creates much more of a problem for women. Now there’s an answer from heaven - a heart sensing sports bra. Read More

Adidas readies sportswear innovation: the tackle-proof football jumper

By Mike Hanlon

February 20, 2005 Adidas is set to unveil prototypes of a new football jumper that uses derivations of its ForMotion and ClimaCool clothing technologies to produce a tight-fitting jumper that conducts sweat away from the players body through a combination of heat and moisture-dissipating materials, and makes the surface of the jumper slippery and difficult to tackle. The jumper has been developed for Australian Rules Football's most famous and popular club Collingwood and could revolutionise Australian Rules and full contact sports where tackling is permitted. Adidas is a major sponsor and long term partner of the Collingwood Football Club and in the coming weeks the first prototypes of the on-field apparel concept will be delivered for evaluation. Read More

The world's most dangerous sporting event.

By Mike Hanlon

January 17, 2005 It's the world's most dangerous legally-sanctioned sporting event. Every time the event is run, on average, two competitors and an unknown number of spectators die. The size of a small city, the Dakar Rally streaks for 16 days and 9000 kilometres across several countries and time zones at frightening speeds. One of the most significant events in the history of motorsport, it has direct lineage to the first auto race and all the famous city-to-city races which were banned between 50 and 100 years ago due to the carnage. So why is it still running? Read More

Aerobic Training Device Allows Skiers to train all year

By Mike Hanlon

January 16, 2005 Skier's Edgenow builds a range of non-impact lateral aerobic trainers designed to improve skiing ability, lateral strength, agility, balance, endurance and overall fitness. Suitable for everyone from the novice to the most seasoned skier, the side-to-side conditioning will help take skiing abilities to the next level. The Skier's Edge Big Mountain Series will also help skiers maintain their fitness level in the off-season by specifically improving endurance and technical skiing ability. Read More

FRWD Sports Performance Recorder for athletes

By Gizmag Team

November 5, 2004 Wearable athlete management systems are set to become widespread with the release this week of the US$1000 FRWD Sport Performance Recorder ; a device which measures route, distance, altitude and speed using GPS technology along with heart rate. Like the GPS Sports unit we reported on recently, which has similar functionality, the FRWD promises a goldmine of information for all athletes in understanding their physiology and performance. Outdoor and alternative sports enthusiasts can relive their experiences second by second and compare their performance with their friends and rivals. A mountain biker can compare heart rate and speed variations... Read More

Nokia providing sporting coverage to mobile phones in US

By Mike Hanlon

Nokia has begun delivering live audio broadcasts, real time scoring and streaming video highlights from American National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) to mobile phones in America. The system requires a Nokia 6600 imaging phone and is the first of its type, offering a glimpse of live sports action in the future. Read More

GPS Athlete Management System to revolutionise sport

By Mike Hanlon

The SPI 10 is an Australian developed fitness first that records critical perfomance data via a miniature unit worn on the arm. Using GPS and heart rate monitoring technology, the SPI 10 (pronounced "spy") logs information on time, speed, distance, position, altitude and heart rate which can then be downloaded and analysed using specially designed training software. Read More