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New Devices Help Track Olympic Winners

Posted by timothy on from the track-more-gymnasts-please dept.

Darren writes "Athletes are going faster, higher and longer and as a result the technology that measures their feats at the Olympics needs to keep up. As a result a number of new devices to help track winners, losers at the Games have been developed, including microchips on marathon runners' shoes, ultrasensitive touch pads in the pool, radar guns at the beach volleyball and cameras that take 1000 images per second."

3 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Something tells me by baximus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Something tells me that the technology used will inevitably be faster than the athletes it's used to track. Athletes are, after all, not going twice as high, twice as long or twice as fast, every two years.

    1. Re:Something tells me by space77pup · · Score: 5, Insightful

      True, but it definitely does have to exceed the athlete's abilities. It seems that every Olympics the margin between Gold, Silver and Bronze gets smaller and smaller. What was the difference between Gold and Bronze in the Men's 100M Dash? .02 of a sec. If the technology was even 10 years older, they would probably have called a tie between all three of them.

      --
      I still miss my ex. But my aim is getting better.
  2. this must not be true by jjeffries · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Bicyclists use a transponder clipped to a spoke on their front wheel to record their finish time. It sends signals from the bike to antennae along the route so judges can confirm who is in first.

    That must be a typical media oversimplification, right? If a race comes down to a scary, rubbing-elbows-with-the-guy-beside-me sprint, I sure don't want the 'win' to be decided by where in its rotation my wheel is when we cross the line together...