You’re reading this post so you’re probably at least a little geeked-out about the innovations and technologies driving the world of sports. And as a bonus for your interest, I’m going to give you some inside skinny on the below Digital Sports teaser. But please watch it first.
There are several references to Dassault Systèmes in the video. Insiders’ info #1: Mehdi Tayoubi (director of interactive strategy & marketing) is the person closing the VirtuSphere. I’ll sprinkle more insider tips throughout this post.
Here are some photos taken at the exposition’s opening that feature current and former French government officials . . . testing the Virtual Cardio™ Bike (even the ministères are into VR!):
I tried to indicate with Paint the names of the government representatives (see scribble in red; you may need to double click on the photo to see it well).
Photo factoids:
1. François d’Aubertis president of Cité des Sciences. Previously he was mayor of Laval, France and one of the founders of Laval Virtual, and he even once had a run as French ministère of research.
2. Eric Besson, among other government roles, is France’s secretary of state for digital economic development.
3. Fabrice Lourieruns the Cité des Science’s media center, and since the Cité is part of the governmental portfolio, I guess we can count Fabrice as a government rep.
Here’s a shot of François and Eric getting on the bikes.
And here they are in action.
If you go to the expo, you too can ride the Virtual Cardio™ Bike. But there are also interesting workshops, round-table discussions and special events planned for you. Some of the themes that interest me the most are:
• E-sports
• Handisports
• “From Pong to Today, 30 Years of Sports Simulation”
Parfait for 3DSports, non?
But back to the teaser. Remember the guy running inside the VirtuSphere? I run into him frequently at Dassault Systèmes, and he was even at the V+R Challenge kick-off event March 7. His name? Ray Latypov. His role? He’s the inventor of the VirtuSphere and one of our partners.
Last teaser factoid- but this one’s for YOU to answer! The digital runner is running in a digital environment. Remember the buildings? Now here’s the question: how are those buildings linked to Dassault Systèmes, and where are they “located?” (This is a trick question, so stay tuned to see who gets it right!)
Last week the Tour de France began, and through the end of July we’ll experience yellow-jersey-folly. This year marks the race’s 95th edition. How much has the sport evolved in a century?
Well, a lot!
Rather than focusing on cycling innovations that help competitors win, I’d rather talk about two peripheral points.
1. Being a Tour de France spectator has changed a lot, even in just the past few years. I was particularly pleased to see that this year’s official Tour website is quite V+R-esque. Just like you can find out in real time where in the world is Philippe Fuchs, you can catch Tour cyclist gaps in real time. So you don’t need to be on the actual sidelines or be at home glued to your television to keep track. You can stay at work and still follow! There are other cool functions to the official Tour website, notably the wealth of eyewitness videos, and GoogleMaps “StreetView” of the Tour.
2. Smart cycling clothing keeps you safe. Now there’s a new trick to add to your safety regime. In compliment to your bike helmet, you can “be the bike.” Why rely on arm signals or tiny flashing lights attached to your bike when you want to let others know you’re turning? You can wear the Turn Signal Jacket! (Thanks for the tip Jean!) Here’s a short video made by the inventor Leah Buechley that shows how it works:
As far as I can tell, you can’t buy this in a store—Leah generously provides instructions on how to build it yourself! Warning, you may need to exercise a little geekiness to accomplish the task.
Design matters. It impacts our motivation to play, and how we play.
Jean from the CATIA Design Studio tipped me to the below “Best of Design” video by Decathlon (merci Jean).
When you watch it, you’ll hear trendy Buddah Bar-ish music. You may forget you’re looking at camping gear, skis and soccer equipment. It’s highbrow art!
If you weren’t sure if you were looking at actual products or 3D versions, that’s normal. Lifelike 3D products are so realistic these days that they’re starring in many of the TV commercials, videos and ads that you see. Low cost production, better special effects, same (or better) emotional reaction.
Thank you, Decathlon designers and engineers, for these great products. No wonder you’re racking up the awards (Observeur, International Form, Reddot . . .).
Beckham, Zidane, Kahn and Xavi are just a few names that come to mind when you think ‘soccer star.’ Last night during the final Euro 2008 match (Germany 0 – 1 Spain) soccer’s newest star was in play.
I’ll give you a few hints: compact, accurate, high-performing, stylish.
Oh yes, and with German origins . . .
Still stumped? For those of you obsessed with soccer, you have already heard about this star in the news. A bit controversial and especially got under the skin of Germany’s Jens Lehmann and the Czech Republic’s Petr Čech.
Uh huh, we’re talking about the ball! Europass Gloria.
Created by adidas and supposedly designed by German soccer icon Oliver Kahn, the Europass Gloria, a stylized makeover of the Europass, was used as the official ball in last night’s final competition (the Europass was the official ball for all the other Euro 2008 matches). Several sources I found on the Web claim the silver wonder to be the most accurate soccerball ever. Ironic that SoccerBlog.com, the self-acclaimed “world’s leading soccer blog,” published a negative slant on the ball, while giving it the densest technical description/promotion, I found:
“The new ‘Europass’ match ball of Bayer material is supposed to combine outstanding flight characteristics with greater power transmission and control. The ball has 14 panels in the shapes of tongues and propellers and only 24 junction points when assembled. There is a change in the exterior structure - called PSC-Texture. Nubs resembling goose bumps on the surface layer give the ball more power and swerve. The larger surface of attack and contact surface allow the players to control the ball more precisely in all types of weather. ‘PSC’ stands for Power-Swerve-Control, which means optimized power transmission, more spin and greater precision - which makes it sound like something that should be part of a new car engine.”
To hear what the goalies say about it, go to the original post here.
Cha-ching!
The soccer ball is a hidden star of the discipline, but also of business. With annual sales estimated at $40 million in 2001, the soccer ball market is in a competitive league of its own. Aiming to drive technological advancements that result in stars like Europass Gloria, industry leaders (i.e. adidas) have strategic partnerships with sports technology research labs to stay ahead.
A key part of the research being conducted at these labs is (FEA) finite element analysis, a subject I’ve covered before when blogging about adidas’ ForMotion running shoe technology. The labs develop FEA models of soccer balls in order to better understand their behavior, test their performance, and know which design adjustments to make in order to reach ‘perfection.’
Fig.1. A research photograph of a soccer ball (left) and an Abaqus FEA image (right), from Loughborough University Sports Technology Group, demonstrate how realistic simulation can accurately model the different stresses on the fabric panels of the ball when it is bounced against a surface.
You just can’t roll out Europass Glorias without the FEA step.
Fig. 2. Sports equipment makers are increasingly using computer-aided engineering software—such as Dassault Systèmes’ Abaqus Unified Finite Element Analysis (FEA) product suite from SIMULIA—to speed development and enhance the quality of products such as artificial turf, shoes and soccer balls.
What characteristics do you think the next generation soccer ball will have?
When you’re pregnant, you see pregnant women everywhere. And I can attest that when you’re writing a sports innovations blog, you see sports innovations everywhere too.
Last night I was walking to my bus stop after work and saw it. It passed in my peripheral vision and at side-blur looked like a skate attached to a bicycle. I turned around, and by the time I figured out what it was and wanted to snap a photo with my cell phone, it was a fading dot.
What was it? I felt like an entomologist discovering a new insect species. And later that evening after a long 10 minutes of Web research and still not finding it, I was getting even more excited. But alas, it’s been around at least since 2006. Perhaps it’s just taken that long to make it to France (as inversely, the Tecktonik music and dance wave is heading to the North America).
Imagine crossing an indoor gym step machine, elliptical trainer and an outdoor bicycle. Et voila! Suddenly you have new “species” roaming the streets. What’s it called? Streetstepper and Stepper Bike are just two brand names. The below video explains it better than words. Notice how the Streetstepper jock passes the regular cyclist.
Now you don’t have to decide- get all the benefits from using the StairMaster while enjoying an outdoor bike ride. I wonder how the fitness clubs will top this? They’ve only got rain going for them so far . . .
Freedom from devices. Total liberty of movement. Fun, and lots of it!
This is perhaps the future of sports gaming and mixed reality applications.
This week I attended a 3D and PLM developer’s conference called DEVCON. The industry is really turning a corner, and I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of VR seeping in to product design and consumer experiences. “And sports?” you may be asking . . .
Well, let me just say that on the second conference day my thighs were killing me! (Oh, the hazards of developer events.) That’s because I did a little “sports” at the Tech Fair.
Ever heard of a company called Softkinetic? They officially present themselves as “the leading provider of 3D gesture recognition solutions to the Interactive Digital Entertainment, Consumer Electronics and Serious Games industries. [They] help customers create immersive, transparent and intuitive user experiences for video games, PC applications . . . industrial simulation environments.” Softkinetic had a stand at the DEVCON Tech Fair where conference goers could play video games—without a joystick, Wiimote, or other device. Nothing!
Sound a little magic? It is.
The way you play is simple and well coined as, “You move, we do the rest.” Softkinetic’s middleware platform kind of “beams you up” into the video game (although your real body stays in the physical world- don’t worry) through a 3D depth-sensing camera. It does this by identifying and tracking the movements of your body parts, like your head, hands, legs, torso, center of mass, etc. When you bend, your virtual character bends. When you jump, your character jumps. When you dance the Y-M-C-A, so does your digital representation.
I played a game where I had to shape my body to fit inside flying wall cut-outs. The killer (and thus my poor thighs) was the coffee table shape, which BTW repeatedly slammed me. The guy before me only got it a few times!
Instead of showing you the video taken at DEVCON, I’d like to show you this one that Softkinetic uses as its teaser. I prefer it because it has music and shows a variety of users and gameplay.
You can imagine the fun (and workout) to be had with such device-less sports or action gameplays. I wonder what would happen if you used Softkinetic’s technology in a VR cave?
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