SMART SPECS TECHNOLOGY COULD CLEAR THE WAY TO ULTIMATE ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
10 August 2004 - Cambridge Consultants

For today's athletes and their coaches, performance improvement depends increasingly on access to detailed biomedical data. The essence of the new technology - working title Technospecs - is that it incorporates both data capture, and highly effective information delivery. Sophisticated sensors measure factors such as heart rate and blood oxygen levels, and that information is delivered in real-time in the form of a head-up display, the never-bettered information feedback technique originally developed for jet fighter pilots.

The resulting 'wearable laboratory' has great potential for use both in optimising training regimes and honing competitive performances, and Cambridge Consultants is currently talking with clients in the sports industry about transferring the technology to commercial products.

The sort of products that Cambridge Consultants envisages are smart goggles for swimmers, or glasses for distance runners or cyclists, providing real-time feedback on biomedical functions as well as timing data on the athletic performance in progress.

Behind Technospecs lies work on a number of technologies that will transform the technology concept into a commercial product. These include miniaturisation of optical and sensory electronics, mechanical engineering to optimise the positioning and stability of the sensors, electronics and battery, and - most significantly - signal-processing techniques to produce reliable measurements from a moving, sweating athlete.

A key step in achieving a commercially successful product will be a cost and size reduction exercise to bring all the electronics together on a single dedicated chip.

One further intriguing implementation possibility is the addition of a wireless communications link to the Technospecs chip, so that an athlete could transfer performance data to a PC for detailed analysis, or to the trainer.

The technology has many applications around the sporting arena. The sensor technology of pulse oximetry which provides the data on blood oxygen levels would be particularly useful to athletes in extreme conditions such as mountaineers, skydivers and pilots at high altitude. The compact head-up display technology also presents opportunities in automotive sport where the ability to display sensor readings in a helmet or viewfinder could eliminate the need to look down at controls. Monitoring of real time physical data also has applications beyond sport, such as in the armed forces or emergency services.

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