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!