January 2010 
UK Sport and British University collaboration
http://www.uksport.gov.uk/news/
UK Sport are continuing their close collaboration with UK unversities in the form of a long-term £8.5million project funded by ESPRC called ESPRIT (Elite Sport Performance Research in Training with Pervasive Sensing). They describe the project and collaboration in a press release:
The researchers are devising miniature wearable sensors that will monitor different aspects of athletes’ physiological performance, in order to monitor and optimise training for competitive performance. The sensors will include wireless wearable nodes to measure biochemical information, heart rate, EEG, ECG, muscle activity, joint speed and contact forces. Athletes will be able to use this information to understand how they are progressing and developing with their training.
The team is also developing small track-side sensors, for detailed monitoring of an athlete’s body movements and location, and of interactions between a team during training.
Sports scientists can currently monitor athletes’ performance through controlled experiments in a laboratory setting or, increasingly, via commercially available technologies that can be used in the ‘field’. However, the devices used for this are often large and either not suitable for use in the field, or able to measure only one aspect of an athlete’s or team’s performance. Consequently, the data collected is not realistic enough for sports scientists and coaches to understand how athletes are performing in a training or competition environment.
The new wireless ‘pervasive’ sensing technologies that the ESPRIT team is developing will extract continuous information under normal training and competition environments, giving coaches far more accurate and regular feedback about their athlete’s performance than is currently possible. The researchers will be working with the high performance sports community, with the ultimate aim of creating a competitive advantage for elite athletes.
2009
Learn to cope with emotions during sport - the next level of sports training?
http://www.research.philips.com/
Philips research team have developed a very interesting "emotion shirt". The research team have been developing technologies that stimulate a desired mood through touch. Presented at the 2009 World Haptics Conference, Paul Lemmens explains “One of the projects we are working on is the emotions vest, which was shown at the IEEE-sponsored WorldHaptics 2009 Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The vest does not focus on feeling the punches that the movie character gets, but we want people to feel Bruce Lee’s anxiety about whether he will get out alive, for example” says Paul Lemmens. The jacket, responding to signals encoded in a DVD or to a program designed to control it on the fly, can do a number of things such as “causing a shiver to go up the viewer’s spine or butterflies in the stomach.” During the fight, the jacket will even create a pulsing in the chest to simulate the kung-fu master’s elevated heartbeat. The aim, he says, is investigating how to create emotional immersion.
“We are now looking into which kind of touch is associated with what emotions and if every touch conveys the same emotion for the same person”, says Lemmens. “Consequently”, he continues, “We might be able to determine whether the future emotions jacket or other device should be generic or trainable by its user”. If we come to understanding of how touch relates to emotion and whether or not this relationship is different for each individual, we can help people in achieving a certain emotional state or mood. For example, creating an environment in which a baby feels happy and safe. This would be an important step to further Philips’ efforts in Health and Wellbeing.
Information and images from Philips.
2009
Fat burning underwear
http://www.crunchgear.com/
In an article published by crunch gear, Teijin have announced that they have created fatburning underwear using Nanofront fibres. No clincal study has been linked but who knows?!
2009
New wind tunel bubble technology
http://www.atzonline.com/
A new wind tunnel technology using microscopic bubbles in enhancing the automotive industry. Developed by MIRA, this flow visualisation and measurement technique provide large volume flow field mapping in a full-scale wind tunnel. For more information please click on the link above.
Sportstechreview are looking for sports aerodynamic specialists to comment on this and other technologies. Fancy it? Please email your name and expertise in include an article.
2009
Ion-mask technology
Ion-mask technology developed by P2i is a nanometre thick plasma layer, originally developed for the forces, that forms a protective screen against oil and water. The surface energy of the treated surface is 3 times lower than PTFE. According to P2i: Plasma is used because of its unique properties that allows it to bind to a multitude of materials including polymers, fabrics and ceramics.
2009
Sympatex launch "no sweat" fabric
SympaTex have developed a patented membrane which is "100% waterproof", "100% windproof" and still allows the skin to breathe. The fabric membrane has no pores which suggests that it will never lose its function due to a blocking of the pores through residual agents such as washing powder or soil. A hydrophilic layer is on the inside of the body and a polyester layer on the outside, with a membrane sandwiched in between. As per the pictures below from SympaTex.
2009
Why are so many maple baseball bats breaking?
There have been a number of maple bat injuries of late. One splintering bat in particular knocked a female fan unconscious and suffered a broken jaw. Hence, the recent investigation into their design and use by MLB player-management safety committee. LiveScience have written a nice article concerning the history of baseball bat construction and surmise about their reason for failure.
2009
Strongest material ever?!
Text from technology review.
Materials scientists have been singing graphene's praises since it was first isolated in 2005. The one-atom-thick sheets of carbon conduct electrons better than silicon and have been made into fast, low-power transistors. Now, for the first time, researchers have measured the intrinsic strength of graphene, and they've confirmed it to be the strongest material ever tested. The finding provides good evidence that graphene transistors could take the heat in future ultrafast microprocessors.
Jeffrey Kysar and James Hone, mechanical-engineering professors at Columbia University, tested graphene's strength at the atomic level by measuring the force that it took to break it. They carved one-micrometer-wide holes into a silicon wafer, placed a perfect sample of graphene over each hole, and then indented the graphene with a sharp probe made of diamond. Such measurements had never been taken before because they must be performed on perfect samples of graphene, with no tears or missing atoms, say Kysar and Hone.
Hone compares his test to stretching a piece of plastic wrap over the top of a coffee cup, and measuring the force that it takes to puncture it with a pencil. If he could get a large enough piece of the material to lay over the top of a coffee cup, he says, graphene would be strong enough to support the weight of a car balanced atop the pencil.
It's unlikely that graphene's incredible strength will be put to use in such a task. At the macroscopic level of coffee cups and cars, "any material will be full of cracks and flaws," says Kysar. It's at the level of such cracks and flaws that airplane wings and bridge supports fail. "Only a tiny sample can be perfect and superstrong," says Hone.
2009
Adidas use nanotechnology to etch names onto threads
adidas are now offering customers the chance to etch their name onto threads of the All Black shirt.
2009
CTC create ankle support test machine
CTC developed a laboratory test to analyse a shoe's capacity for supporting the wearer's ankle. The test consists of a biomechanical foot constructed from a metal skeleton, covered in resin and a porous material called Siporex. The skeleton structure has two interlocking joints corresponding to the two main joints in the ankle: the talocrural and subtalar joint. The aim of the test is to replicate the twisting and turning movements of the ankle.
Each joint is connected to its own data capture device. The shoe upper is fixed into a dynamometer by means of a pulley and cables, and the traction of the pulley causes the foot to move. The test measures the resistance levels of a shoe, in the ankle area, for a given angle, when the foot twists or turns.
Text extracted from sportstextiles.
2009
Nanopaper stronger than iron
Nanotechnology, for all its recent growth and vibrant promise, still feels very sci-fi to us laypersons, what with all those buckytubes and nanoceramics. Lars Berglund of Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology, though, is bringing the nanotech treatment to thoroughly familiar, if not boring, material: paper. By processing wood pulp with enzymes and high-pressure microfluidic chambers, he's been able to create paper with dramatically finer strands, offering some impressive improvements in mechanical characteristics. According to the article in MIT Technology Review, this "nanopaper" is "stronger than cast iron and tougher than bone," featuring a tear strength seven times that of conventional paper, and the ability to stretch by 10% before failure.
Information taken directly from Core77.
2009
Toray develop deodorising clothing
Toray Industries Inc, the world’s leading fiber and textile manufacturer with over $12 billion in annual sales, announced that it has developed a nanotechnology-based deodorant material for clothing. The new material, Mushon™, specializes in reducing perspiration odor for clothing applications such as sportswear and work uniforms.
Mushon™ features anti-bacterial/deodorant properties, which meet the blue label standards specific to SEK Mark (JIS L1902 a value of bacteriostatic activity over 2.2). Particularly with nylon and polyester fabrics, Mushon™ reduces up to 80 percent of odor generated through perspiration and maintains its effectiveness after 20 home launderings. Toray’s Mushon™ recently saw extensive testing in the space uniform worn by Japanese astronaut Takao Doi during the Space Shuttle Endeavor’s mission to the International Space Station in March 2008.
Article from Outdoor Industries.
2009
Uniforms that heal wounds
In an article published in The Times (March 15), a new technology has been developed that promotes healing and may reduce infections. Garments are treated with a carbohydrate called chitosan, that has been found to absorb excess protease enzymes which can slow the healing process.
From US Agricultural Research Service.
2009
Harness body heat to generate power?
The Berkley Lab at UC Berkley have developed a system to harness electrical power from silicon nanotubes synthesized with silver ions on a flat water surface. It is hoped that this technology will power electrical goods such as MP3 players and cell phones. Interesting technology worth a read at rich media info.
2009
Rubber that repairs itself upon breaking
A new self-healing rubber, formulated from fatty acids from vegetable oil, this rubber can be stuck back together again once broken. This may have a significant impact on the sports market as, potentially, broken polymer products may not have to be replaced ever again.
For more information please click the link. Images and information reprinted from nature.
2009
Knee brace that charges cellphone
A knee brace that generates enough electricity to power 10 cellphones was demonstrated by scientists recently. The brace harvests the energy of a person's knee braking after taking a step, similar to the way hybrid car brakes collect energy to charge their batteries. The device only weighs 3.5 pounds, and does not need the intense effort that other human-powered energy generators such as hand cranks require. Would this technology be able to power diagnostic equipment of the future?
For more information please click the link. Images and information reprinted from gizmodo.
2009
Plasters with micro-chip to remotely monitor patients (athletes?)
The Sensium™ is an ultra low power sensor interface and transceiver platform for a wide range of applications in healthcare and lifestyle management. The device includes a reconfigurable sensor interface, digital block with 8051 processor and an RF transceiver block. On chip program and data memory permits local processing of signals. This capability can significantly reduce the transmit data payload.
Together with an appropriate external sensor, the Sensium provides ultra low power monitoring of ECG, temperature, blood glucose and oxygen levels. It can also interface to 3 axis accelerometers, pressure sensors and includes a temperature sensor on chip.
One or more Sensium enabled digital plasters continuously monitor key physiological parameters on the body and report to a basestation Sensium plugged into a PDA or Smartphone. The data can be further filtered and processed there by application software.
For more information please click the link. Images and information reprinted from toumaz.
