From the Gold Coast News today...
Tracker could revolutionise sport
Thomas Chamberlin | February 3rd, 2011
TRACKING sensors could soon be used to help judge precision manoeuvres in elite snowboarding, surfing and skateboard competitions after a Gold Coast investigation into uses for the small devices.
Griffith University's Dr Jason Harding, who used the sensor technology on elite athletes while working the Australian Institute of Sport, has a $10,000 grant from the International Olympic Committee to find the best way to implement the concept into snowboarding.
He said the sensors, currently the size of a small mobile phone, could be used in Winter Olympic sports as well as elite surfing and skateboarding competitions.
They could record technique variables such as rotation and air time using GPS, motion and acceleration sensors which send summary information wirelessly to computers.
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The technology is already used in AFL, soccer, rugby league, rugby union, cricket, basketball and tennis.
''I don't think anything like this should ever be used to remove the subjective judge,'' Dr Harding said.
''But ... when the amount of athletes that can achieve optimal performances increases, it makes it difficult for judges to distinguish between elite athletes.
''We don't want it reduced down to a boring mathematical equation.''
Dr Harding and AIS colleagues adapted sensors from other sports such as rowing and swimming and tested it with the Australian snowboarding team.
He said a half-pipe snowboarding AIS micro-tech pipe challenge successfully used the technology in 2007 at Perisher ski resort, but there were logistical issues with athletes wearing sensors.
An Olympic judge and the sensors each picked the same competitors in the top three. However, they placed second and third differently.
The sensors agreed with 74athper cent of the judge's score.
The device could have implications for the Gold Coast, with QuiksilverantsGCorrect Pro and Roxy Pro competitions based at Snapper Rocks until 2013.
Pro surfer Bede DurbidgeantsGOK, of Currumbin, said he did not believe the technology would work in surfing because it was unlikely to be able to judge how critical the movement was, how deep an athlete was in the barrel, or the size of the wave.
''It's not like any sport ... it's constantly changing,'' he said.
''You could use it maybe to give to the judges, as well as what they see. Maybe it would just give them a bit more of an insight into what you are doing on the wave.''