Ever done a track day on your motorcycle? Do you constantly strive to improve your game? What if you had leathers with various sensors embedded throughout that could provide you with a map of body position at each point on the track?

For example, you might have laser distance sensors in your knee pucks, pressure sensors in your butt, lean angle in your back protector, and a camera in your helmet, all connected to a GPS system that would tie your actions to specific track coordinates. This system would either burn all the data to a DVD, or broadcast it to a stationary base unit for recording.

Now you can spend hours in post-mortem examination of your technique - Find out exactly where you touched your knee on turn 2, how far you leaned over, where the apex really was, what the track looked like, etc.

Even if you didn't use it to improve your riding technique, it'd still be cool to play with the data.
-- justaguy, May 16 2005

the light of astounding utility strap_20a_20pedometer_20to_20your_20cat
Because [daseva] has coined my new favorite phrase [justaguy, May 17 2005]

I like this idea, eventhough it seems that you can put something that senses something else onto anything that's in proximity of said thing to be sensed and I'd probably like the idea.

So, I guess my anno says little of the inherent savvy and quality of said idea, seeing as I'm about as easily entertained as a kitten in a gumball machine.
-- daseva, May 16 2005


Yes, but you're exactly the sort this would be marketed to. What, no bun?
-- justaguy, May 16 2005


I'm reluctant only because this post really promotes the entire sports sensor data analysis market. Every sport, that is, could benefit from noninvasive sensory pads, GPS tracking, and robust data analysis. In fact, some of them already have. The post is more of a paradigm than an invention.
-- daseva, May 16 2005


Posibly, but I think it's no more a paradigm than say, "armored motorcycle clothing". While armored clothing is a commonality among many sports, the specific design is not. But, as with everything else, I shall let the 'bakery decide.
-- justaguy, May 16 2005


Okay, but can I then post a sensor suit taylored for golfers, and another for basketball players, and another for tennis players, ad infinitum?

//While armored clothing is a commonality among many sports, the specific design is not.//

Exactly. The idea contains no new technology, just a new application of old technologies. Useful, cutting edge, and expensive. But not original.
-- daseva, May 16 2005


I do think it's original (a novel combination of existing technologies).
But.
If you're going to burn all this data onto DVD and then, presumably, have a computer reconstruct your body position during the ride, wouldn't it be just easier to, errr, video yourself?
-- Basepair, May 16 2005


To errr is human.
-- normzone, May 16 2005


Well, it's not so much body position that you're recording as it is specific things that you did... for example, where and when and how much you shifted your weight, etc. The idea is to boil everything down into convenient data points so as to allow a much easier mining at a later time.

In other words, it'd be pretty boring and time consuming to look at a video and say, "ok, it looks like I shifted my weight a bit to the inside there... now let me plot that on my chart... hmm... that was somewhere between points a and b on turn 3... now 1 second later I dipped my knee approximately 6 inches..." etc.

To further clarify, you're not trying to reconstruct an image, you're trying to reconstruct your actions in an attempt to better model the most notable points of your particular riding style.
-- justaguy, May 16 2005


Yes, [basepair], you are right, the design is orginial... I still have a hangup with the fact that a sensor suit could be made for any sport, and it just so happens that one posted for motorcycles is "novel"... There is a fundamental reason why this should not be considered an idea, and I'm trying to get to the bottom of it... Of course, I fear now, that, just as I have once said that "every idea is a recipie to some extent" every idea is also probably a "novel" combination of old technologies, or ideas, based on your definitions of such words used therein.

I fear that a "good" idea disguises its recipie-ness in the light of astounding utility and unprecedenting combinations of ingredients. This idea, in my opinion, struggles to do this.
-- daseva, May 16 2005


I more or less exactly fail to see what "the light of astounding utility" has to do with the halfbakery.

I do however, appreciate the attention that has been paid to the idea. I've had much better ideas that went largely ignored, which to me indicates that it is marketing and not absolute merit which defines the "usefulness" or "originality" of an invention.
-- justaguy, May 16 2005


The Doohans, Shwantzs, Russels and Chandlers of the world can already do this in thier minds. I once saw an interview with Rossi where he recounted an entire lap of Jerez, going through each gear change, breaking point and apex. Afterward, the program showed the clip again, inset with one of Rossi's laps around the track, he was dead on.

This has the potential to allow regular humans to glimpse what the supermen do. Have a bun.
-- ato_de, May 16 2005


//marketing and not absolute merit// A very early lesson I learned at the HB. I should've already known when I saw the "amazing" device, the Topsy Tail, selling on TV for $9.99.

It was a loop of wire on a stick, that was all!! Insanity! Shenangians! Riches!!
-- contracts, May 16 2005


[justaguy], no doubt, I like this idea. Also, no doubt that I never wanted to share degrading opinions. But, in the course of a day, alot happens. Go figure.

I do think the halfbakery has alot to do with the light of astounding utility. Imagine a piece of shit. What a piece of shit! What if science finds out it can save lives? Then, no longer a piece of shit, for it has been shed with the light of utility. I was implying that your idea is a piece of shit that saves no lives, which was obviously wrong of me.

Ahh, that bun up there now has a friend.
-- daseva, May 16 2005


[daseva] This emotion you Humans call "Wuv" confuses and infuriates us!
-- justaguy, May 17 2005



random, halfbakery