It's no wonder it was a big highlight f the show. Action Sports has been a catalyst for new trends for several years now. Technology in fashion is one example. The industry has also been a great agitator. The growth of Go-Pro accelerated crowd-sharing in a fun way.
And, it's great too see technology supporting the health of athletes. This can be used to keep track of, not only winning techniques, but also any degenerative effects on the body.
Even if surfing has the reputation for being laid back, when it comes to competition, participants will do anything to improve performance. Just look at how performance-enhancing drugs proliferated. If MEMS improves performance, they will get the attention they deserve.
A few years ago, there was actually a television show called "Sport Science," which was all about measuring athletic performance with sensors. It was actually a good show for engineers.
As a self-avowed data junkie, I think this is really cool technology. I remember working 25 years ago on some Virtual Reality projects where we were trying to map the body in 3D space. Some of it eventually translated into telepresence programs and gaming, but nothing like the miniature sensors can do now. Just wait until energy harvesting gets integrated into these sensors and then they can go just about anywhere.
Now if we add a lite, powered, programmed exoskeleton to the person, they can be guided/prompted through the proper movements to enhance performance and to avoid injury. Like an instructor teaches how to fly a plane via dual controls.
I imagine this technology has been available for some time in the movie industry, what with millions of budget dollars. Glad to see the form and functionality has advanced to be useful to sporting pursuits.
Yes, this is like a virtual co-pilot. One application I've seen is that pro golfers and ball players are capturing their expert golf or baseball swings. Users can then match their own swings to the experts to see where they are matching for falling short of the expert's swings.
I have seen applications where Hollywood would dress an actor in a MEMS suit and use the feedback from it to "vitualize" them for use in CGI; much more lifelike than regular computer animation. I think it has been used for video game design as well.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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