Tracking performance in real time
Traqua, developed by the CRC for microTechnology for the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), is the leading edge of the next sports revolution - providing hard data in real time on an athlete's motion to reinforce the coach's eye and instincts.
Developed originally for rowing, the motion-sensing technology is now extensively used by the nation's elite swimmers and is being evaluated for other sports such as football, cycling, snowboarding and sailing.
Traqua consists of an unobtrusive plastic case containing micro-machined, high-precision inertial sensors, digital recording and radio equipment. These sense the athlete's movement and position in the water, analyse it with sophisticated software and report it to the watching coach who can then provide immediate advice on overcoming any flaws that hamper optimum performance.
In swimmers the device sits in the back of the athlete's costume and will report things like stroke rate and symmetry, body roll, distance and lap count, split times and turn times.
As it catches on for training, he forsees the technology may also be adopted to eliminate the 'human factor' in the judging of sports such as boxing and diving.
The microTech CRC estimates the world market for such advanced training and coaching devices at tens of millions of dollars.
Individual devices cost a few hundred dollars. The hardware can be generic to a number of sports but the real secret lies in the mathematical algorithms which analyse the crude data for a particular sport or action. Logging ability also allows the coach to examine long-term trends in the athlete's performance in minute detail and assess the benefits of various training regimes.
The same technology also has potential uses in healthcare - for example, in remote monitoring of patients at risk of a fall, for rehabilitation after an accident or the treatment of obesity.
The Traqua technology was developed within the CRC for microTechnology by Griffith, Swinburne and RMIT universities and engineering firm iWRX.
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