I have recently downloaded the latest version of Kinovea, a freeware video analysis tool. The new version allows all sorts of analyses to be performed using this very simple freeware software. The beauty of the software is the fact that is free and is of very good quality. I think it is a great coaching tool and with some minimal equipment can be extremely useful to share analysis of sports techniques between practitioners and coaches.
Kinovea can be dowloaded here.
Electronics manufacturer Apple Inc. is developing some software and hardware products aimed at the fitness and sports science market.
I was performing a simple patent search on Google Patents with iPOD and Fitness as keywords and came across a series of interesting patents filed by Apple.
The patent (US 2008/0077620 A1) shows also some screen shots of the software and the hardware is presented in other patents filed by Apple in 2007.
So, how long before we will be seeing tools for sports scientists and fitness instructors on the market able to be interfaced with Apple devices? Not very long. Apple in fact released the SDKs (software development kits) few months ago and I am sure a lot of people are working hard to deliver some apple-based solutions for sports scientists. The lifestyle companion system (this is the name of the patent) will allow also the possibility of setting specific goals, tracking progress and sharing information with an internet-based community.
I am looking forward to see it in action!
The internet is an incredible source of free resources also for sports scientists. I am a happy owner of a Nokia N95 8 Gig Mobile Phone. One of the features of this mobile phone is an internal GPS with aGPS support. The smartphone runs the operating system Symbian S60 3.1.
Nokia offers a lot of free software packages for the smartphone. One of the most useful tools I installed few months ago is Nokia Sports Tracker. Nokia Sports Tracker is a GPS-based activity tracker that runs on Nokia smartphones. Information such as speed, distance and time are automatically stored in a training diary. Supported Nokia Models are available here.
Ideally an athlete can just wear the mobile phone and perform the training session planned and record all data. This software can be used not only with Mobile phones with an integrated GPS but also with the ones with the possibility of using a Bluetooth GPS device. Nokia of course provides also some options for GPS receivers.
The software is great. With simple downloads directly from the Mobile it is possible to view all details of the activities performed and tracked and analyse all data and also map them.
Single workouts can then be viewed with a Map and specific details:
And, most of all, speed and altitude data are presented in graphic form:
Last but not least, it is possible to download the workout as a KML file and import it on Google Earth to visualise the route on satellite-generated maps.
The software can be also run entirely from the mobile phone with real time information:
The integrated camera in most Nokia phones will also allow to associate pictures with GPS data, so when the info is downloaded key pictures can be visualised and associated to GPS data. If you want to find out more about this, specific information on how to combine the two features are described very well on Jennifer Hanen’s blog.
This is a fantastic tool, I have used it in various locations around the World and it works extremely well. So, if you have a Nokia Mobile compatible with Sports Tracker make sure you start making good use of your GPS!
Jack of all trades, Master of some
A blog by Dr. Marco Cardinale, PhD
A blog by Dr. Marco Cardinale, PhD
To Discover What is New in Sport Sciences
A blog by Dr. Marco Cardinale, PhD
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