Greek and UK researchers develop technology for monitoring athletes' performance

Brussels, 01 Sep 2004

With the Olympics in full swing in Greece, researchers from Athens and Birmingham in the UK have teamed up to design a wearable computer that can remotely monitor the performance of athletes.

The 'on-body' computer will track the acceleration, pace and body temperature of the wearer. The device will be strapped to an athlete's chest and wrists and will send signals via a radio link. The system could also be customised for particular sports. For example, a volleyball ball could contain an additional data collector, sending back information on force and impact to the receiver.

'We have produced our prototype in time for the Olympics, however this system can have many different applications,' said Chris Baber from the University of Birmingham. 'It can make science more interesting in a classroom environment where it is useful for physics teachers when teaching their students Newton's laws of motion; it can be used by sports coaches to point out good and bad examples of technique; it can also be used in a real live match scenario where a coach or manager can assess the performance of a player just by looking at the data sent to the laptop.'

The development work for this project was carried out at the University of Birmingham, while the pre-market prototype was developed by Greek company AncoSa. The device is on show at an exhibition featuring sports technology in Athens during the Olympics.

CORDIS RTD-NEWS / © European Communities
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