Now, I owe it to myself to tell you, Mr. Griswold, that if you are thinking of taking the tribe cross country, this is your automobile. The Wagon Queen Family Truckster. You think you hate it now, but wait till you drive it.
–Ed in the National Lampoons 1983 film “Vacation”
Most everyone takes summer vacation (even the Griswolds), and now it’s my turn. In my absence I’m passing 3DSports over to Richard Breitner who I know will take good care of you.
In addition to being heavily involved in Dassault Systèmes’ Passion for Innovation program, Richard has a passion for fish and orchids. I can attest that on his desk, which is just three doors down from my office, Richard has three fish tanks including one pampered fish each, and three orchid plants including two babies and one adolescent.
Richard will keep you abreast of any Philippe Fuchs news, discuss with you should you wish to discuss, and might pop in a sports innovation/technology post in here and there. If you’d like to see what he looks like, watch his Virtual Relay (he’s #2 on the Hall of Fame).
I’ll be back mid-August to report on Philippe’s arrival in Beijing.
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.
The BBC-cited eyewitness says that on the streets, “There are 10 or 12 military tanks with what look like big cannons outside. There are no protesters now although there are rumours that they will do it again.”
Hopefully things will be calm for our V+R Challenge champion!
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?
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