Athletes score big with the Internet of Things

pcworld.com

The proliferation of personal data sensors, and their companion apps and devices, is pushing the Internet of Things in entirely new directions. Athletics and sports measurement are at the forefront of this new technology, with a network of sensors helping athletes train in new ways, avoid injury, and get fine-tuned feedback down to the foot-fall. 

These sensors - popping up on shoes, wrists, helmets, shirts, and more - are being quickly adopted by both professional sports trainers and amateur athletes alike. According to a Simafore article, sports analytics “is set to become a driving force in the sports industry. Analytics is helping industry experts to make better decisions on a variety of issues from selection of players during team formation to tactical plays during a game.”

These sensors also help athletes long before the game starts by preventing injuries during training. For example, the Jolt Sensor is a small clip developed for football players that attaches to helmets or headbands; when a player – and hence the sensor – experiences an impact that is considered ‘dangerous,’ the sensor can vibrate to alert the player and send a notification to a smartphone app via Bluetooth. The Jolt app also provides cognitive tests and a concussion symptom checklist to not only calculate injuries but also to establish a healthy baseline to measure against.

Likewise, the Checklight skullcap from Reebok captures “head impact data” and uses green, yellow, and red lights to signal how heavy an impact a player has taken. Though designed for American football, these devices could also be used in other high-impact sports like hockey or rugby – a crossover that is already beginning to take effect.

And these sensors are not confined to helmets alone. The Hexoskin is a biometric shirt that measures heart rate, breathing rate, breathing volume, and running cadence, which are then relayed to a smartphone app for real-time tracking and monitoring. Sensors are also showing up in sports equipment; Zepp Labs’ Multi-Sport sensor can be placed on a tennis racket, golf club, or baseball bat to measure the motion of the swing in order to help players visualize their movements and identify areas for improvement.

The placement of sensors within an Internet of Things (IoT) system doesn’t just collect useful training data; according to a recent Cisco article on the Connected Athlete, it also “turns the athlete’s body into a distributed network of sensors and network intelligence… the athlete becomes more than just a competitor – he or she becomes a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN)." 

Amateur athletes haven’t passed up the opportunity to use these sensors either. From fitness trackers that give real-time audio feedback to correct your form and prevent strain from running (Moov) to bands that measure the level of impact on your legs and tell you when to rehydrate (LEO LegBand from GestureLogic), sensors are increasingly available to help consumers minimize the risk of injury. You can find sensors in shoe inserts andsmart socks to help measure your speed and cadence, teach you how to avoid injury, and help you pick out the best style of running shoe.

As more consumers and athletes accumulate data, its value increases. This is outlined in Metcalfe’s Law, which states that the value of a network increases proportionately to the square of the number of users. The aggregation of this data can help leagues identify common sources of injury and refocus the rules of the game to reduce risk, and improve training methods and equipment to proactively keep their players healthier. And that potential will only improve as more people get on board and the technology becomes more sophisticated.