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 Ripxx Personal Measurement Device  US Bobsled Team Photo credit: photographer name  US Bobsled Team logo | Ripxx Brings New Technology to Olympic Training SessionsPersonal measurement device records data on your sports performance September 14, 2009 NASHVILLE, Tenn. Sept. 14, 2009 – That may have been the best run of your skiing career. It was fast, you caught big air and managed to throw in some spins and rolls on your way down the slope. It was, quite possibly, the best run of your life. If only there was a way to prove it, to show it to your friends and to relive each second. Experimental Design & Analysis Solutions, Inc. (EDAS) is in the final stages of developing a device that can do just that. Ripxx®, a “Personal Measurement Device” or PMD, records your movements while skiing, snowboarding, biking, hiking, driving, running or any other activity that has you moving. Had you been wearing a Ripxx during that amazing run down the slopes, you could plug the device into your computer’s USB port and transfer the data to the custom software package. The data is then translated into a variety of charts, graphs and 3D models. Your movement can also be overlaid onto a realistic map so you can retrace your route and know precisely your speed, acceleration, orientation and location on any point during the run. And skiers and snowboarders can take advantage of a special feature: watching a replay of their runs in a third-person perspective. This unique feature - which is available for all ski resorts in Colorado, Utah and New York, plus selected resorts in Vermont and Canada – gives you a videogame-like representation of your every move over the actual terrain you skied or shredded. The user can either watch the run with a free-roaming camera or by fixing the camera behind the avatar. “We wanted to create a way for people who really want to improve their sports performance to have some good, hard data on their movements, whether it is on a slope, trail or half-pipe,” said Dr. Kurt Nichol, president and CEO of EDAS. “We packed Ripxx with enough sensors to ensure that anyone who uses it will be amazed at how much information is collected and shared with their coaches, teammates and friends.” The performance data provided by Ripxx is so accurate that a prototype of the device is currently being used by a U.S. Olympic team during the training season leading up to the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in February 2010. “That’s all confidential at this point,” said Nichol. “But the results are very exciting. The athletes we are working with have been astounded with the data Ripxx has provided.” The Ripxx Personal Measurement Device measures location via a GPS tracker that sends 10 tracking signals every second during your run. The device also contains three accelerometers and three gyroscopes. The combination of these sensors means that Ripxx can not only plot your location, but orientation, speed, vertical drop, rolls, spins, turns and just about any other movement you make, then play back a precise model over a realistic map. Ripxx can measure: • Elapsed time of run • Time of day run was made • Run distance • Top speed as well as average speed. • Top acceleration and average acceleration • Distance, height and air time on jumps • Roll rate (how quickly you execute spins) • Roll count (how many times you execute a roll) • Vertical drop from any two points • Steepest part of run • Number of runs on the same track • Number of tracks at the same location The device will be constructed with a weather- and shock-resistant case and large buttons that can be easily operated while wearing gloves. It also incorporates an OLED display that won’t freeze on the slopes and gives instant access to select data on the current run – so you can know immediately exactly what your top speed is, for example. “There is nothing out there that collects as much data or interprets it in as many useful ways as Ripxx,” said Nichol, himself an avid skier. Nichol said the plans are to put Ripxx into production in late 2009 and those interested in product updates can sign up at www.ripxx.com. Experimental Design & Analysis Solutions, Inc. – the creator of Ripxx - is a supplier of high-end vibration testing solutions for jet engines and other high-performance industrial applications with a low tolerance for error. Basically, they are rocket scientists. The same level of technological knowledge and advanced engineering EDAS engineers bring to their work in testing massive jet engines has been devoted to developing and testing Ripxx. ### < Return to News |