Endless Winter Coming To End, Time for Endless Ice

This winter will end; at least we think it will. Spring actually sprung last week at least officially, and much of the country should see warmer weather this week. Thats good news, unless you happen to play hockey. While there are always indoor rinks and arenas, there is another option, namely Endless Ice.

This company has many products to keep players on the ice year round, including advanced training systems and even home based models. This also a real bonus for teams such as the El Paso Rhinos, who used the system to train for the Western State Hockey League Championship series, where the weather isn’t always agreeable for hockey – and rarely outdoors. The system works much like a treadmill, but with a synthetic surface that replaces traditional ice. In addition to just skating in place, a computer analyzes the player’s form and technique and provides feedback to help optimize performance on real ice.

Endless Ice is currently used throughout the United States, in the Czech Republic and Germany, and even throughout Canada, where winter is even more endless than in parts of America. But the technology is there so players can get in the skate training even if they can’t hit the ice.

Endless Ice Official Website

Computerized Surfing – Not Just for the Web

Chances are you’re doing it right now, you’re surfing the Web. That is after all what we think of when we say computerized surfing, but now there is a very different type of “high-tech” surfing that actually puts you in the water and takes you away from the Web.

Spanish company Pukas is working with technology partner Tecnalia on a board designed to give professional wave riders an edge.

Enter the Tecnalia Sufsens board, a computerized surfboard that is loaded with a gyroscope, accelerometer, GPS, strain gauges and pressure sensors that can measure everything from the rider’s speed to the how much wave he or she is catching. Back on dry land you can download the data to a PC for analysis.

MayaFit: A Personal Trainer for Everyone

Ready to get fit but need a little bit of coaching, yet don’t have the time to actually hit the gym. How about a digital fitness trainer? Respondesign, which introduced its Maya system in 2005, will now offer this digital trainer to individual’s TVs and PCs.

The company, which is the original developer of Yourself Fitness, My Fitness Coach and Your Shape, has announced the release of the consumer version of its MayaFit software. This is the first shipment to feature the PrimeSense Open Natural Interaction (OpenNI) solution. The software is designed for TV and PCs, and adds to the existing MayaFit Training Station deployments in U.S.-based gyms and fitness centers that have been in production since late 2010. MayaFit software leverages the OpenNI framework to support motion-based fitness training for individual and group workouts.

“OpenNI provides a structure for us to incorporate gesture recognition into our line of digital fitness products. Fitness is a natural category and PrimeSense is providing a great enabling technology that allows us to build next-generation fitness experiences for our broad range of consumer and corporate clients. Motion tracking provides our trainer intelligence with real-time user feedback and makes the interaction easier, more fun and more effective,” says Ted Spooner, CEO of Respondesign.

This fitness training with motion tracking can now be utilized via home TVs and PCs with in-living room equipment such as the WAVI from ASUS. Together with the MayaFIT training system, the ASUS WAVI Xtion solution combines full HD wireless media transmission with the world’s first PC motion-sensing interface to transform existing PC’s and televisions into in-home gesture-controlled entertainment areas.

So how are you going to respond?

Respondesign Official Website

Earthmate PN-60w Gets Back(Packer) Award

The DeLorme Earthmate PN-60w has your back, and more importantly it has earned the Backpacker magazine Editors’ Choice Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the outdoor industry, given annually to products in recognition of their outstanding innovation in design, materials, and/or performance.

The Earthmate PN-60w is a rugged, waterproof handheld GPS offering full navigation capabilities, along with the unique ability to create custom Type & Send text messages for delivery via the SPOT Satellite Communicator. It allows users to explore and stay connected with family, buddy lists, social network sites, and emergency responders, even when far beyond the reach of cell phone service. It has earned the award after extensive, rigorous testing in the most challenging conditions imaginable. Continue reading Earthmate PN-60w Gets Back(Packer) Award

PlayStation Move.Me to Benefit Research and Academic Communities

Anyone who thought that video games are just distractions from academic efforts might want to think again. This week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco Sony Computer Entertainment America unveiled Move.Me, a software application that academics, researchers, students, and hobbyists can use to create new types of software applications using the PlayStation Move motion controller as an input device on their own PCs, all via the PlayStation3 system.

The Move.Me project has the potential to help medical researchers prototype, for example, rehabilitation applications for patients undergoing physical therapy. The Move.Me application could further help lead game design students to develop new creative concepts for gaming within the areas of 3D modeling, motion capture, and augmented reality. The application is compatible with any Windows or Linux-based PC; other devices, such as tablets and smartphones, can also receive PlayStation Move’s tracking data if they can connect to a PS3 system.

“PlayStation Move’s camera-plus-controller combination allows for the most precise and immersive gaming experiences,” said John McCutchan, senior engineer, SCEA Developer Support. “Now we’re formally taking that advanced technology, which was almost ten years in the making, and offering it to innovators outside of our traditional game development community so they can create their own applications to impact the world in exciting new ways.”

The Move.Me application will be available for download from PlayStation Network this spring.

Sony Computer Entertainment PlayStation Move Official Website

iPhone App to be Black Box for Bikes

We’ve long heard about the importance of the black box for airplanes – even if the box isn’t technically black. And we’ve been hearing that following Toyota’s ongoing accelerator problems that there could be a move to put black boxes in cars, but what about bikes?

Well, don’t look for a fancy piece of hardware in the frame, but our friends at BikeRadar.com are reporting that a new iPhone app has been released that works much like the airplane version of a black box, which in the unfortunate event of a crash could store video footage of the collision and other data.

The iCar Black Box app from 21pixel is available now in the UK, with a free download for trial. It can be used to monitor speed, location and g-force. It isn’t mean to be a training aid or even a video camera, because while it does film on a loop it only records in the event of an impact. Like a black box for planes it is something you likely hope you’re never going to use, and this is where we see a small problem.

There are many iPhone apps available as training aids, and unless the mobile handset can do double duty we feel most riders aren’t going to want to put the app on their bike when it could be used for something else instead.

[via BikeRadar.com: New iPhone app works like black box for cyclists]

Pixel21 Official Website

Map to Better Fitness and Nutrition

There is no one route to better health, but MapMyFITNESS hopes to help guide the way. The maker of online and mobile health and fitness-related software applications announced a partnership with Humana to launch Humana fit, a Web-based and mobile social network designed to help users live healthier and more active lives.

This includes an online nutrition center, as well as an app that lets users map out their daily activity including walking, hiking and biking. And since there is always strength in numbers users can interact in a dynamic social network to share progress and serve as motivation.

This partnership also includes integration with companion Human fit iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps, where it can take advantage of built-in GPS to allow members to record and share their exercise routes, and data for all fitness activities can be synced and saved for a training log to monitor performance.

 “Humana fit is a powerful platform, as it leverages the entirety of our Web and mobile technologies to deliver Humana an innovative, multi-faceted health and fitness application with a built-in thriving community from day one,” said Robin J. Thurston, chief executive officer of MapMyFITNESS.

Humana fit Official Website

MapMyFITNESS Official Web site

SporT on With New Tracking App for iPhone

This week SporTracker announced the release of its new app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. SporTracker is designed to help users track and analyze their body parameters for everyday sport activity, while providing a virtual personal fitness instructor to help main good physical condition.

The app can be used with a range of activities including walking, running and cycling, as well as wind surfing and even kayaking. It relies on the built-in iPhone GPS and motion sensors, which can track location and measure progress in real time. Users can further track speed, distance, cadence, height, climbing rate and time among other characteristics. This activity can be broadcast as LiveTrack Session to the SporTracker website or shared in real time to Facebook and Twitter.

“Our team has been working hard on delivering a great application supported by very informative website,” said Daniel Neaman, president of SporTracker Ltd. “We are convinced that our users will find the application effective and user friendly.”

The app is available now for $4.99 via the Apple App Store in the Healthcare & Fitness category, for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad – requires iOS 3.1.3 or later as well as 5.1MB.

SporTracker Official Website

Virtual Trainer Gets Smartphone App

Tracking a workout will soon get a little easier, as Life Fitness recently announced the Life Fitness Virtual Trainer smartphone app that will sync with the company’s popular Virtual Trainer Website. This will allow users to update workout results on both the site and to their mobile devices.

Through the free app, users will be able to track workout progress via a smartphone, including both cardio and strength results. There will also be a library of training features available as add-ons for purchase.

“Today, internet content is shaping the workout experience and new technology, like apps, further enhances a fitness program,” said Chris Clawson, president of Life Fitness. “This smartphone app is the natural next step for Life Fitness and will support our users by allowing them to maximize their workouts on our equipment.”

The smartphone app will be available soon as a free download.

Life Fitness Virtual Trainer Website

Life Fitness Official Website

SolaRoad Uses Cycling Trails at Test Bed

Dutch company TNO recently presented its idea for the SolaRoad. While the application will likely be used for roads eventually, TNO has its eye on Holland’s 15,000 km of bike paths to start installation of its solar panel-infused road.

The current conceptual design for the SolaRoad consists of modules. For the cycling application, the path will consist of prefab elements made up in layers: a concrete housing, solar cells, and optical layer and a transparent top layer. The concrete element will measure 1.5 by 2.5 meters and each layer will be placed on top. The glass will be a 1 cm thick hardened glass layer of crystal silicon solar cells. The road surface will then collect roughly 50 kWh per square meter annually. An average household consumes about 3,500 kWh of electricity per year.

Solar roadways have a few criteria in the design and implementation such as stiffness and maintenance. Benefits the SolaRoad can provide include the ability to display messages electronically on the road. If it’s a cycling path, the road can display a message that the upcoming light is turning red in cases where the path crosses a road. It also eliminates what TNO calls “landscape pollution”.

New applications to collect solar energy are interesting to watch. It will be great to see the roadways become potential solar farms rather than taking up vast open spaces to install solar panel farms. However with a top layer of glass, we are interested to see what the actual surface will be like. Roads especially, but even bike paths, can get slick with even the slightest amount of rain. How will the glass and other layers of SolaRoad stand up to cold and extreme weather conditions? We know this isn’t your average glass, but it sure can get cold and snowy  in those winter months in the Netherlands.

For more information visit TNO and locate the English option.

via [Cyclecious]

Wahoo Fitness To Turn iPhone Into Digital Trainer

Among the companies at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show that showcased new products in the health and tech space was Wahoo Fitness, which recently introduced a line of Apple-friendly products, with the goal to bridge the gap between expensive fitness gear and everyday users.

Wahoo Fitness has developed the unique “fisica” technology, which via a phone dongle lets the iPhone handset or an iPod Touch receive information from various fitness monitoring devices including heart rate monitors, pedometers and other gizmos and gadgets. This plug-and-play add-on can work with around 40 leading fitness apps, helping deliver data to the handheld. The products communicate using ANT+ wireless protocol technology.

We’ll be sure to watch what Wahoo Fitness brings to market this year.

Wahoo Fitness Official Website

Will ANT+ Give Bluetooth a Run for the Money in the Fitness Market

This week Sony Ericsson introduced a YouTube video that shows off the benefits of ANT+, a wireless communication standard used in a variety of fitness devices including heart rate monitors and pedometers. This wireless technology is software based, and it work with devices such as mobile phones. The question is now what ANT+ could mean for Bluetooth in the fitness space? We see a battle brewing between the blue and the ant!

LCD BacPack Gives the Hero Camera a Separate View

Sometimes when you’re capturing the action, you still want to see the action. The GoPro Hero cam, which was on display last January at the Consumer Electronics Show, now has the LCD BacPac, a detachable LCD screen that works with the GoPro Hero camera. Continue reading LCD BacPack Gives the Hero Camera a Separate View