New wearable sports tech better than GPS
SABEL Labs developed SABEL Sense, a running speed tracker better than a timer and a GPS. Sabel Sense is a wearable tracker for running speeds and distances for professional athletes. Australian Football League (AFL) players are now wearing Sabel Sense in their competitions.
SABEL Labs project manager and research fellow Dr. Jono Neville used accelerometers as an alternative to GPS in the quest for improved athlete assessment techniques.
His research, titled “A model for comparing over-ground running speed and accelerometer derived step rate in elite level athletes”, is detailed in Sensors Journal, which is currently published online and will be in print next month.
Dr. Neville said while Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are an important tool for workload management, the devices have limitations when it comes to changes in speed and direction and when they are used indoors, due to their reliance on external satellites.
He compared inertial sensor data with GPS data, collected simultaneously from Brisbane Lions AFL players during 2009, to create a model which was highly accurate for running speeds.
Dr. Neville said his technology will be key in monitoring training and game workloads.”This will assist in preventing things such as over-training, which is a major concern for elite athletes, to reduce risk of injury.” he said.
“We have found a data processing technique which allows us to extract data from an athlete and create an individualised model.” Dr. Neville said individualised models are created automatically using SABEL Sense technology which can then be used to track speeds and distances.
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
