COOL! WOO! 18th BLOG POST! WOO! FISHING GPS! WOO! WOO!

Not a big fisher, but apparently GPS is becoming a regualr part of the fishing experiance for professionals and regulars. GPS units have been created by Garmin and other places that allow you to explore without getting lost, dock your favorite spots, calculate optimal feeding times for the fish, contain detailed information about the area and the type of fish known to reside in the area.

A handheld one costs around 150 dollars

You can also plant it on your boat and it will have fish finding capabilities...this will go for 500-1000 dollars though. Check an example out below:

Hi tech cleats

This is a little off topic but I did see a really cool fake shoe ad online the other day where you could use social media, get discounts, interact with people, by wearing a special rfid shoe and stepping on a mat. It is not a real technology yet but it could be...it would be neat if you can get a free drink at a bar, meet a facebook friend, etc. just by wearing sneakers and stepping on a mat. it is hard to explain but it is really cool, go to this website to check a video about this for yourself

http://adsoftheworld.com/blog/rfid_in_shoes

Cool! WOO! Sweet Soccer Ball! WOO!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

CTRUS Concept soccer ball from Agent uses GPS AND RFID to help officials accuratly judge games and can change colors during key moments in the game to reflect what is going on. The coolest part of this ball is how it looks check it out below

COOL! WOO! My Idea for Rfid in mixed martial arts! WOO!

I was watching the karate kid over the weekend and I had a great idea for mixed martial arts fighting competitions. I thought that perhaps RFID could be used to help score the organized battles. The arena could have a magnetic field in it that could gauge where on the body contact was made and points could be rewarded accordingly. Also rfid could be implanted in what the fighters were wearing and could let the refs know when a score was made. this could get the ref out of the ring where they could be a distraction to the fighters or even worse get themselves injured. This could also help populize the sport and bring technology out of the workout room and into the ring.

WOO! COOL! Computer Science = more bat pop? WOO!

In my research for my final case project I stumbled across a bat that has radar embedded in it to help training with bat speed. Bat Speed directly adds distance to hitters shots so a "radar bat' could be a very useful training tool. Also a baseball with radar could help pitchers see how well they are throwing this could be very useful for pitchers developing arm speed and pitching techniques. An image of an example of this type of equipment is shown below:

COOL! WOO! GTL in the NFL! WOO!

I was having a conversation with a colleague recently and we started talking about how its difficult to manually officiate whether the football crosses the plane/gets inside the pylon during NFL football games. A solution to this problem would be the use of GTL (Goaline Management Technology) which leverages the magnetic field technology currently applied in trial in FIFA soccer. Thin cables are put in the ground or wireless above the turf, installed on the goaline and they emit a unique magnetic field. A sensor in the ball would measure and send encrypted data to receivers in acomputer which determine when the ball has crossed the line, the referee would be appropriatly informed of the decision. This would all take a fraction of a second and seems like a reasonable and feasible solution to the much debated goal line calls.

COOL! WOO! No more lost golf balls! WOO!

it is finnally here! Technology that can help with one of the most annoying aspects of one of the greatest games. Radargolf has created golf balls that are embedded with RFID chips. These chips can help you find your balls if you are like me and constantly knock it off course into the woods, marsh, high rough, etc. The propriety BPS (Ball positing system) will help save time and money because it will be easier to find these balls. A tablet is used, a handheld device with a tracking range of about 30 meters and an LCD screen and pulsating audio tone that will help guide you to your lost golfball.

COOL! WOO! Little League Streaming WOO!

Yo! peep this parents! Little league international has recently struck up a deal with Youth Sports Live to offer its video service to over 7500 programs. What the company does is install a camera in the backstop at little league complexs and for a signup fee it streams a live feed to a personal laptop. Parents that can't make the games because of work, etc. can spend around 15 dollars a month to see their son play ball on their computer. The technology also has the ability to record so if their is a big play or game winning hit you can buy a DVD with the game recorded and perserve that memory or send it to relatives. "Were hearing from subscribers that it is becoming the norm not the exception", said the CEO of the company. Below is a screen shot of a live little league feed from Youth Sports Live:

COOL! WOO! GAMEDAY APPLICATION! WOO!

Its almost baseball season and I'm excited for it to begin. Sometimes I can't watch the games on tv though because I'm in class, library, etc. Since Baseball and technology have become closely integrated in the last few years, One of the most interesting applications of technology is MLB's GameDay feature which allows each pitch to be tracked and provides the graphical representation of the pitch including release point, velocity, and break. It is more impressive technology than the Pitch F/X I talked about in my previous post. This uses three cameras to triangulate the data and send it in real time to MLB headquarters where it is exposed to the website in a clean graphical format. It incorporates elements of Pitch F/X, but also includes live box scores, real time batter vs pitcher scouting reports, live audio feed, and a 3-D interactive viewing experiance. People can get access to this for about $20 a season.

COOL! WOO! QB TRAINING HELMET CAMS! WOO!

COOL! I was just watching Sportscenter and saw that Brian Kelly from Notre Dame is hooking his quarterbacks helmets up with cameras to help gather information in the spring workouts. Kelly said he enlisted the help of a company to attach a portable light camera to his QB's helmet so he could see with the highest degree of accuracy where they were looking on any given snap. The helmet is designed to track the eyes of the player through their progression.

COOL! WOO! The progression of the basketball scoreboard WOO!

• 1890-1932 Scores were unofficially written down on paper



• 1934-1960 Clock with nails to hang score (change manually)



• 1960s Elecrtonic scoreboards included scores, timer, and buzzer but needed multiple cable wires that were ducttaped down so people didnt trip on them



• Wireless scoreboards used radio frequency running from control console to modem connected to scoreboard, could be controlled from anywhere in arena



• Upgraded scoreboards show team fouls, possession arrow, shot clock, period, etc.



• LED Display scoreboards that are brighter and can play videos



• Portable scoreboards that are available with all technologies except are handheld and can be accessed from iphone etc, scoreboard can be emailed


• Below is a picture of a oldtime scoreboard and the NBA Gametime application

COOL! WOO! Running Tech ZumRun WOO!

ZUmRUn and ZumTri (the triathalon version) are the next step in running technology. CHips and radio frequency identification tags can now be used by runners that allow for them to be accuratly timed. Friends and family can sign up to receive texts as the athelete crosses certain milestones of the course, etc. It was used in a marathon in Disneys wide world of sports. Marketers bellieve thatthat in the future participants will select venues based on technology being used there. Below is an example of ZumTri results streamlined to a computer. WOO!

COOL! WOO! New Underarmor E-39 Shirt! WOO!

COOL! I was just watching the NFL combine and I heard that some of the prospects for this years drafts will be testing out new E-39 shirts from UnderArmor. Dubbed "the Tony Stark shirt" by Rich Eisen of the NFL Network referring to its "Iron Man" look, the E-39 is a shirt similar to all other under armor material shirts except this is equipped with an accelererometer as well as heart and breathing monitors. This is all contained in a small "puck" shaped device that's virtually weightless in the front middle of the shirt. The sensor pack contains a processor and and 2 gigs of storage. It can share the information it gathers via Bluetooth helping NFL personell determine the best draft picks for their team. The technology can also find small inefficiencies in body movements and help the athletes correct them. Eventually this product will be available to everyday people to help us scientifically see how out of shape we are and help us fix this problem. WOO!

COOL! WOO! Pitch F/X systems being used?! WOO!

What the hey!? I just heard the coolest thing about pitching effects systems being used to help train pitchers...it's bonkers! This is neat, there are computers that can gauge the movements of pitches and help ppitchers to see if new release points, new grips, or different arm slots will help their pitches work better (for example curveballs move more). Ex-Royals pitcher Brian bannister among others use this type of technology. Brian Bannister is the type of pitcher who relies on th movement of his pitches to get people out due to his lack of power and speed. Below is a quote from him:

"I'll throw pitches in a low-key situation in a different way, check after the game to see how it measured on the pitch fx, see if it was better or worse and go from there"

Below is a graph containing important information from of a similar type pitcher named RJ Swindle uploaded from "erik" on Beyond the Boxscore.com

COOL! WOO! RFID and Sports Memorbilia! WOO!

RFID is poised to become the latest weapon for retailers to deploy in the arms race against shoplifting. A company called Prova Group is leading the way in this department. Prova decided early on to create a system that works at the moment of the signing of sports memorbilia that would put authentication in a database and lock that information onto an RFID tag. How it works is that the tag is applied to the item prior to signing, and then, at the point of signing, the tag is read by and entered into the Prova database, recording who, when, and where the autograph took place. Once an item is registered in Prova's Online Registry, the registered owner is able to print a certificate of authenticity on demand and to share the tagged item’s complete history, its chain of custody, with interested buyers or other collectors. In addition if a collector wishes to add additional signatures to an item the Prova RFID tag can record each separately and provide proof of authenticity for each autograph. This RFID solution could really benefit the sports memorbilia industry.

http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/real-lebron-ball-rfid-and-sports-memorabilia

RFID in Professional sports business...COOL! WOO!

I'm excited! Want to know why? Well I just learned The Seattle Seahawks Qwest Field and the Philadelphia Eagles Linoln Financial Stadium deploy an RFID payment system called PowerPay. They were created by Smart Systems Technologies and they work by linking the readers to POS (point of sale) terminals. Fans can register online to obtain the readers and tags and studies have shown it speeds up sales transactions to two times faster than cash and 6 times faster than credit/debit cards. It can also be used as a promotional tool linking special savings and rewards programs based on usage. SST Cheif technological officer Michael Richardson believes RFID technology can do the same for consumers as it does for inventory and product ID. The Seahawks and Eagles obviously buy into it, and other teams in the NFL, MLB, NBA are too as this type of payment system is being implemented at many homes of our favorite profesional sports teams

RFID in Racing

My girlfriends brother is a collegian runner at Lesalle in Pennsylvania and used to run at QU before the program was cut, so I thought I would look into some running technology today. It turns out every runner wore a ChronoTrack D-tag which included an Impinj RFID chip at a recent marathon in Seattle. The tags were weather resistant and the consensus was that they more dependable than other race technologies. They were useful because they tracked start, split and finish times. It enabled data to be collected not just at the start or finish but also midway through the race in order to eliminate any chances of cheating, this is the beuty of rfid technology, and one of its many uses. The tags used were disposable so they were just hooked up to the shoe and shirt number It seems RFID technology has started to become a common feature at races being held across the world and it not only makes the races fun and exciting but also enables the deserving winner to be awarded for his or her efforts.


http://www.rfid-weblog.com/50226711/sports.php

Welcome to my Blog!

Hi everyone, and welcome to my sports technology blog...

Throughout time we have seen how technology has evolved and how it is impacted all our lives. From ancient hieroglyphics written on stone tablets, to the telegraph, to the telephone, to the cellphone, to Twitter, technology has evolved and improved communication...while not as historically important as that, sports technology has evolved too, and today it is being used and experimented with more then ever. This is why I am writing this blog, because sports technology is at its highest point ever, major technological breakthroughs are paving the way for the future of sports playing, viewing, and studying. New technology is being harnessed and worked on to improve and futurize the games we love, and that which have become so integrated into our society. Things like Hawk-eye technology and smartballs loaded with tracking chips to provide real time data to officials are emerging, Computer systems that help with athlets' training and nutrition are being used, instant replay technology and other high tech elements are already widely used to take the human element out of officiating a game and improve it. What technology in sports will we see next? If it really good for the sports? These are some of the the things that will be discussed over the following 12 weeks as I blog about the technology in sports both today and tommorow. I hope you enjoy!