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| Prototype of a Vision Sensor Network |
Issued: 28 October 2009
EPSRC funded scientists are developing a range of miniaturised wearable and track-side sensors, computer modelling tools and smart training devices to help British athletes improve their performance. The Elite Sport Performance Research in Training with Pervasive Sensing (ESPRIT) project is already trialling some of the new technology on British athletes training for winter and summer Olympic sports.
Sports scientists can currently monitor athletes’ performance through controlled experiments in a laboratory, but this does not give an accurate analysis of the athletes’ performance in the field. So the first prototype produced by the team of scientists is a network of miniature video camera sensors, called Vision Sensor Networks (VSNs), which can be used by coaches out on the track, in the pool or on the field, to monitor an athlete’s movements and assess what strategy to use in training.
Professor Guang-Zhong Yang from Imperial College London says: “We expect that the ESPRIT project will make innovative leaps in biosensor design and allow us to look in really fine detail at the physiological changes that happen to an athlete during training and competition.”
ESPRIT has received £6 million from EPSRC and £2 million from UK Sport for a five year project. The research is being led by Imperial College London and supported by researchers at Queen Mary University of London and Loughborough University.
UK Sport and Head of Research of Innovation Dr Scott Drawer says: “We are delighted to be working with leading experts on this exciting project, which we hope will not only benefit British athletes in the build up to our home Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, but also revolutionise out approach to, and application of, science, medicine and engineering in sport for years to come.”
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