With the introduction of SurfSens Surfboard, people who enjoy this sport are about the make their style perfect, as all the parameters are monitored in real-time while riding the waves.
SurfSens is the result of the collaboration between Pukas, a renowned Spanish surfing equipment manufacturer and Tecnalia, a company that focuses on research, development and innovation. Because of the great number of sensors that monitor the board, comparisons have been made between SurfSens and the blackbox of a plane. The entire electronic ensemble that is added to the board weighs around 650 grams, so the added weight is not a great inconvenient to the surfer.
A GPS sensor is integrated in the board, along with accelerometers, strain gauges and a compass. All these are controlled via ROS (Robot Operating System), which is an open source OS typically used by robotics engineers. All these sensors will help surfing equipment manufacturers such as Pukas to improve their boards. In addition, the sensors will show surfers what particular skills need to be enhanced. Not at last, SurfSens could turn really useful in competitions, as judges will be able to determine the score easier.
The first phase of the collaboration between Pukas and Tecnalia implied the design and construction of the board. During the second phase, monitored data gathered from different surfers will be evaluated and the parameters that really influence the performance will be written down. Fortunately, there is a great number of professional surfers who want to test the SurfSens. Parameters such as the foot position, torsion and flex are analyzed by the embedded computer (IGEPv2) and get saved on a flash memory stick. Reading all this data on a computer is done by connecting SurfSens via Wifi.
Among other things, SurfSens demonstrates how important open source technologies really are. Other companies that operate in this industry can easily bring their contribution to making sports equipment perfect.
If you liked this post, please check the Video Helmet Cam for extreme sports and the Recon Zeal Transcend goggles.
Via: Singularity Hub
