Sports

With sprinting events at the elite level decided by fractions of a second, athletes are always on the lookout for anything that can provide even the smallest advantage over their rivals. We recently looked at Nike’s Pro TurboSpeed suit that is claimed to cut down a runner’s wind resistance by using golf ball-like dimples, but footwear plays an equally, if not more, important role in an athlete’s performance. Now French engineer and designer Luc Fusaro has employed 3D printing technology to create lightweight sprint shoes that are customized for individual athletes that could prove the difference between winning and losing.  Read More

How can you possibly keep track of how much you're "winning" if you don't have something to keep score on? The simply named Portable Scoreboard is a scoreboard for the new generation of winning. Whatever your game is, the digital scorekeeper gives you a variety of ways of tallying up - everything from old fashioned push buttons to an open-source build that allows for external sensors and custom programming.  Read More

Brazil is a soccer-mad country. As the host country of the upcoming 2014 World Cup, it is even more obsessed with the beautiful game. The love for the sport permeates Brazilian culture and has reached the labs of software engineers, who have created a virtual platform to replace the traditional tactic boards used by coaches to analyze and improve strategies for players.  Read More

Researchers from RMIT in Melbourne, Australia have developed a flying running companion called Joggobot. The system uses the built-in camera on a commercially-available Parrot AR Drone quadrocopter to track the position of a jogger, and fly a few feet out in front. While the current version has some serious limitations, there is huge potential for the development of a fully interactive training partner or coach in the very near future.  Read More

Some people argue that technology makes us lazy couch-potatoes who spend all day sitting in front of various screens. But tech can also make us better athletes by providing us with information about our sporting performance - whether it's shoes which log a basketball player's jumps, or outfits which give dancers feedback about their moves. Tennis players could soon be getting in on the tech-helping-hand action with the introduction of an interactive racquet.  Read More

Since the 1980s keeping fit has become an ever more popular pursuit and these days, the diversity of fitness programs is truly breath-taking and increasingly high tech. With a prototype created by an avant-garde Seattle design lab, exercise looks set to become positively futuristic. Along similar lines to the MotivePro vibrating suit we looked at last week, Move, designed by Electric Foxy, a company that develops wearable technology, is a kind of sensorial tank top that monitors movements during exercise to help people improve their performance, with particular emphasis on movement precision.  Read More

Many professional athletes employ motion capture technology to help identify problems with their techniques so they can be corrected. However, such technology generally takes the athlete out of the usual performing environment and only lets them review their technique after the fact. Now researchers at Birmingham City University have developed a wearable device, dubbed the “Vibrating Suit,” that provides feedback to the wearer about where their body is in space in real time. Aside from assisting athletes perfect their technique, the technology could also be used to help prevent injuries in those that perform strenuous activities as part of their job.  Read More

You could easily go to a rock gym to try climbing or throw on a pair of boots and hike a local trail, but you'd need to invest a little more time and planning to try caving. You could commit to joining a caving club or pay for a guided tour, but options for just going out and giving it a go are quite limited. CaveSim is a unique innovation that lets prospective cavers get a taste for the sport by providing a virtual indoor cave environment. The device includes electronic sensors for video-game-like scoring features, allowing for tracking your personal score and competing against others.  Read More

Despite technology's best efforts, headphones and sports just don't mix that well. Loss of awareness of your surroundings, uncomfortable earphones and tangled wires make them less than a perfect solution and it's these shortcomings that The Sonic Walk aims to address by providing a more natural, ergonomic way of listening to music and exercising.  Read More