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Athletic Supporters: Gizmos for the Active Set |
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Dr. Samuel Says -
Smart Design
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 |
With the notable exception of the Wii, exactly none of my favorite gadgets and gizmos require anything from me in the way of physical exertion. Which is fine by me, except that, since retiring from active espionage fieldwork, I just don't get the regular exercise I used to. Nothing gets the blood pumping like evading Stasi agents in the labyrinthine tunnel systems under East Berlin, I'll tell you.
Popular Science recently posted an interesting gallery on its website
of the latest in digital gadgetry aimed at assisting the stalwart
athlete. These are performance enhancers all right, but they're not
drugs. Instead, they're super high-end technology with very specific
purposes and very big price tags. Just the sort of item I like to slide
into Dyscern's R&D budget, to see if anyone's paying attention.
Take, for instance, the Nike PreCool Vest, which you may very well spot
in TV coverage of the upcoming Olympic Games in China. It’s a
form-fitting vest, filled with cold water, and designed to lower an
athlete's core body temperature before competition. Wear it an hour
before the event, and it will delay the onset of critically high core
temperatures that produce fatigue.
Then there's the K-Vest, another torso-hugging gizmo, which uses motion
tracking technology to monitor the mechanics of repetitive motions --
like a baseball pitcher's delivery, or the swing of a golfer or tennis
player. The K-Vest translates your motion into a 3-D model on a
display, so you can see where your delivery is going wrong.
Golfers will also appreciate the Gyro Swing driver, which employs an
internal gyroscope -- spinning at 20,000 rpm -- to keep the club face
square upon contact with the ball. (A putter and baseball bat are also
in development).
I particularly liked the 3-D virtual reality headset for football
coaches, from an outfit called 3DMVP. The device renders raw footage
into a 3D digital interface so coaches can examine any given play from
multiple angles and speeds. Plus it promises to make Bill Belichick
look dopier than he already does.
The intersection of technology and athletics is a busy one, indeed. In
fact, many biotech developments come out of this space, for the simple
reason that Nike and Adidas have more dollars to pour into it than do
traditional research centers. Whatever it takes.
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