Potential New Product to Track Speed in the Course

[Rpc29]

Saw this product on a snow ski website I visit pretty frequently and thought it might have some crossover to what we all do on the water.

 

 

It's obviously a kickstarter so the product isn't even real yet, but I still thought it was cool

[MattP]

@rpc29 Awesome product. I hope it gets funded.

[skihart]

Wow...amazing. I would love to try it on a slalom ski

[bojans]

That looks really cool. Love to see some jump data from it.

[scuppers]

Very Cool product

[oldjeep]

Seems like you could adapt some of Recons Ski or cycle products

http://www.reconinstruments.com/

 

[disland]

This could be a very powerful tool for waterskiing. Because our boat speed is constant the variable is always the skier which will make analysis very powerful.

[MattP]

There have been other products but they did not ping the satalites enought times a second. Remember 16.09 seconds later it's over. more pings a second is better for analysis. Not sure what this one does

[klindy]

You can do a LOT of data collection today with a. iPhone or iPod with an app called "sensor data" from Wavefront Labs. With and iPhone 4S it will even use the 3D accelerometer in the phone. Pretty extensive list of data parameters and can be set to capture data up to 100 hertz (shoul be plenty fast to get a ton of useful data). I can capture data to the memory on the phone or use a wifi connection to stream data to a laptop in real time.

 

I need to find an Otter Box for my phone and I'll give it a test.

 

 

[Horton]

I am now a backer of Trace on KickStarter

[disland]

Keith , I have an Otter box for a phone

[webbdawg99]

@klindy, a LifeProof case would be more advisable

[MattP]

No way my phone is going near a ski.. I will be doing some more research before backing this product. @oldjeep that product looks interesting as well.

[klindy]

I'm going to buy a iPod from a pawn shop and test it first. Apparently the only thing missing is the ability to get the accelerometer data. The iPod Ted would be enough to know how big a job interpreting the data will be which is something the product in the original post seems to do a great job with (theoretically).

 

If it works as advertised the Trace would be super cool. Potential for automating calling tricks, slalom and even jump!

[oldjeep]

I think the recon stuff is supposed to be fast, average Nastar race is over in 25-35 seconds and they were out at Nationals a couple years ago pushing their goggles. I remember seeing something about it being able to capture a max speed of around 100MPH, but that doesn't really tell you a sample resolution.

 

 

[oldjeep]

You need a phone like my Sonim - although it isn't smart enough to run any of these apps ;)

[woolly110]

beast iphone covers are from optrix

 

[Than_Bogan]

I start out a bit skeptical. What we really want is a full 3D path with a pretty high sample rate. I believe that if they thought they could offer that, they would be saying so explicitly. Instead they are talking about summary statistics and maneuver identification.

 

Don't get me wrong -- that ain't easy to do and I'll be impressed if they can do what they say, and I may well back them.

 

But I don't think this is *quite* the device we need for slalom analysis, even if it works as planned.

 

Here's hoping I'm wrong!

[Wish]

+1 LifeProof case. It's water proof. Not that I'm stickn my phone to my ski.

[Horton]

I talked to some people that work in this industry the hard part is not so much data acquisition but converting data into something meaningful

[klindy]

@Horton exactly correct.

[Horton]

Having three/ five or more axis accelerometer data is great. combining those data streams into a meaningful position and speed is the hard part.

[Zman]

I like that with this device, now I might be able to tell if my OTF's were 3 cartwheels or just 2-1/2.....

Snow skiers have had a lot of the basic data directly on their iPhones for years with data like total vertical, speed, trail maps, average run length, and much more. Now that Samsung (I think it's them) has a phone that tolerates some amount of being wet - maybe we're not far from being able to snap a smart phone to the top of our ski and get all this basic data that snow skiers have had for years by just carrying their phone with them.

[ntx]

There was a product out several years ago called shadow box that was pretty cool. You tracked it on google earth. The demos I saw showed speed, accrelaration, rotation, height, distance.....

I was never able to get my hands on one. They were also "sold out" every time I contacted them.

[Horton]

@NTX yea ShadowBox looked like the next big thing. I spent a lot of time on the phone with one of the developers. That company imploded and the product the way we need was never finished. Sucks.

[Mortyski]

The GPS system I bought acquires 20 data points a second within an error of 6 inches (actually more accurate than that since how much can the satellites move in 16.08 seconds). The GPS data will supposedly give us an accurate 3D path of a ski run. I also have a load cell to get rope tension data.

 

 

Having said all of the above if this system works it will be easier to use than the GPS system and more accessible to everyone so I'm also waiting to see what it can actually do.

 

I can see an application for snow ski racing as well as water skiing in a course

 

I hope it works!