NHL + GoPro = Awesome!

Hockey season is here, and with a new season brings new technology. The NHL signed a deal with the wearable camera manufacturer GoPro before the start of the season, which will enable certain players and officials to wear the portable camera during the game. The recorded footage will then be used to give the audience at home a replay of the action from the player's point of view. While other sports have used GoPros to film footage during practice, the NHL will be the first major league sport to use these nifty cameras during an actual game. If the experiment goes well for the NHL, they could eventually look into broadcasting live action from the GoPros. Then viewers would be able to watch the fastest game on earth from the perspective of their favorite player, and get a feel of what it's actually like to be on the ice. And who knows, maybe even the NFL will follow suit in the next couple years. Here's a look at what you can expect to see from the NHL's new gadgets:

Reference:

Hutchinson, F. (n.d.). NHL to enhance coverage with GoPro. Retrieved October 26, 2014, from http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/nhl_to_enhance_coverage_with_gopro

Jacksonville Hidden Gem Project

GPS Player Monitoring

In the competitive world of sport, coaches and athletes will do just about anything to get ahead of their rivals. That's where fancy expensive technology comes in! Professional and college athletic teams are taking advantage of a new type of GPS technology that tracks a player's movement and gives real-time analysis about that player's performance and fatigue. This technology is called OptimEye, and is made Australian based company Catapult. OptimEye doesn't use traditional GPS satellites however, since GPS signals don't penetrate through large structures like arenas. Instead Catapult developed its own wireless GPS system that surrounds the perimeter of the playing field. This not only allows for use indoors, but is also much more accurate than using GPS satellites. All the player has to do is wear the cell-phone sized GPS system, and OptimEye will be able to calculate player speed, distance, acceleration, torque, hit impact, body parts movement, and much more. But one of the coolest features of OptimEye is called "PlayerLoad", which monitors how hard the player is working overall. This prevents players from being overworked during practice, and has resulted in far fewer soft-tissue injuries. The possibilities for this new technology are seemingly endless, as the sports industry is quickly evolving to utilize and benefit from the new gadgets being produced today.

How Technology is Tackling Concussions

This week I'll be discussing the issue of concussions in football, and how new technology is being used to monitor the impact that athletes take to their heads. Concussions are one of the most prevalent injuries in the high impact sport of football. And recently it has become a major issue, since the NFL has recently found that three out of ten retired players will develop a debilitating brain disease. And because of this, the NFL recently settled a lawsuit which compensates players over $675 million for concussion related injuries. (Dale)
But the most difficult part about concussions is that they can be so hard to diagnose, and even harder to determine how long a player should be held out after they have been concussed. And since concussions are not visible injuries, players often hide the signs of a concussion in effort to keep playing in the game. This however can be detrimental to a player's brain, as a serious concussion can cause permanent injury or even death.

While the new technologies being implemented won't prevent players from getting concussions, they will provide real-time measurements recorded within the player's helmet. So when a player takes a hard hit to the helmet area the sensors will measure the impact and determine if there was enough force to cause a concussion. This eliminates the guessing game that is determining if a player has a concussion, as well as prevent the player from playing through an injury and potentially causing grave damage. Football programs across the country are starting to utilize concussion sensors like the ones Shockbox produces, and not just in the NFL but even under the Friday night lights of high school football. And for good reason, since an Institute of Medicine and National Research Council report found that high school football players have almost twice the risk of getting a concussion compared to college athletes. (Castillo)
Unfortunately I don't think we can ever prevent a player from getting a concussion, however I do believe that the introduction of concussion sensor technology greatly reduces the chance of a player getting consecutive concussions. This is a step in the right direction for the sport of football, which has seen leagues go as far as changing rules to prevent concussion related injuries. At least now coaches and trainers will have real time data to find out if they can keep their player's head in the game.

References:

Castillo, M. (2014, September 19). 4 cool tech innovations that could revolutionize sports. Retrieved October 12, 2014, from http://theweek.com/article/index/267865/4-cool-tech-innovations-that-could-revolutionize-sports


Dale, M. (2014, September 12). NFL: 3 in 10 ex-players face Alzheimer's, dementia. Retrieved October 12, 2014, from http://bigstory.ap.org/article/estimate-3-10-nfl-retirees-face-cognitive-woes?utm_campaign=NFL&utm_source=SocialFlow&utm_medium=Twitter

Tablets and Football

Author Unknown, Image URL: http://pingamblinginterest.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/NFL_Uses_Locked_Down_Surface_Tablets_on_the_Sidelines.jpg

With the increasing popularity of tablet computers in today's consumer market, like the Apple iPad and Microsoft Surface devices, even sport teams in the NFL are taking advantage of the new technologies available. Old fashioned communication devices like the pen, paper and clipboard, and even dry erase white boards are seen less and less on the sidelines around the league, only to be replaced with electronic equivalents. With the help of these new tablets, NFL teams are able to fully embrace the technology available in today's world with the hopes of winning more football games. While the NFL is limiting what applications can be used during the game, there are still plenty of applications available to help players and coaches prepare for the next big game.

Author Unknown, Image URL: http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/540f328e69beddd73ddc85e7/microsoft-paid-the-nfl-400-million-to-use-its-tablets-but-announcers-are-calling-them-ipads.jpg

For pre-game preparations, there are apps like Coach's Eye which allow for instant video replays and advice on how the play could have run more efficiently. During the game the coach can draw up a play using the CoachBase digital playbook app. And after the game an app called Hudl can be used to watch video from previous games to correct on mistakes made. So as you can see, tablets and their applications can help sports teams at every level of the game. And the increasing affordability of tablets makes this a valuable coaching tool not only at the professional level, but even in college and high school athletics.

Vibration reduction technology

I spent the day taking photos and video at the UNF women's soccer match against Davidson College. The Ospreys won their second game of the season with an overtime goal from Junior defenseman Laine Keating. Here's one of the shots I got of her in action against the Wildcats:

L. Keating UNF v DC Wsoc by Max Hochman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

I use a Nikon D-40 digital SLR camera with a 50-200mm VR lens. The vibration reduction lens makes all the difference, especially with action shots. I just wanted to take a moment to see how the vibration reduction technology works. And since I'm a visual learner, I decided to include a diagram:

So as you can see, the trick with the vibration reduction lens is the floating lens element. This lens is controlled by small gyroscopes and accelerometers that compensate for extra camera movement when snapping photos. This technology is becoming more common in camera optics, in fact the video camera I use also features vibration reduction technology. With the help of this technology I am able to shoot steady video without the use of a tripod. Check out this cool video for a closer look:

Seminoles survive scare from Tigers without Winston.

This past weekend I went to Tallahassee to see Florida State play Clemson in football, and boy what a game it was! First of all, to give a brief background, FSU was playing without starting quarterback Jameis Winston because he was being punished for yelling sexually charged obscenities in FSU's student union just days before the big game. So, as a result of his one game suspension backup quarterback Sean Maguire was given his first start of his short college career against the Clemson Tigers. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous going into this game especially since Clemson is the biggest competition in the ACC for the Seminoles. But despite a dismal rushing game, Maguire did just enough for the 'Noles, passing for 305 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. However, the second interception nearly cost FSU the game, Clemson had the ball inside their 20 yard line with less than two minutes to play. But then Clemson fumbled the ball, allowing FSU to push the game into overtime! Clemson had the ball first in overtime, and decided to go for it on 4th and 1 since they had problems kicking all night. And when FSU stopped the Tigers short of the first down, the stadium erupted. And two plays later Karlos Williams Jr. waltzed into the endzone to seal the game for the Seminoles. Check out the highlights incase you missed the action: