I just got back into figure skating after a 15 year break this month, and in addition to having youtube! smart phones! and all sorts of other exciting things that didn’t exist when I was a competitive skater, there’s now a lot of wearables.
True to my QS heart, I’ve been tracking training progress and hours and jumps and spins, but I’m missing what I feel could be a cool dataset. Fitbits do NOT pick up much from the ice (I think the gliding motion doesn’t seem like steps).
Any ideas how I can track? Velocity, heart rates, and rotations in spins and jumps are all interesting datasets- any ideas some cool wearables I could use?
My initial thought is that you could track your performance somehow using the accelerometers. Perhaps bad runs vs good runs could be distinguished. You might be able to use the raw x,y,z values but you could probably do a lot better if you have the phone orientation wrt your body captured somewhere. Then, you can convert the raw values from phone frame to your body frame. You could also get the phone orientation in an automated fashion by holding still for a few seconds and making a small jump which could be easily picked up with automated methods. This would signal to an algorithm a point in the time series from which to pick up the phone to body orientation automatically and then apply it further.
Hi Anomalily, I have been considering sensors to track body motion.
For a start you could download a phone app like Physics Toolbox Sensor Suite and then wear your phone while skating to see the results.
I used a 3 axis accelerometer to track sleep position. I now have a 9 axis solid state Inertial Measurement Movement (IMU) that I am playing with (acceleration, motion, rotation). The newer ones are smaller and have a bluetooth output. I am working on the software side.
There are also optical trackers that people use to study motion. You may look a little strange with ping pong balls glued to your outfit and the capture environment and subsequent processing would be a challenge.
Good luck
If you’re after raw accelerometer data, and don’t want to do jumps and spins with a delicate phone in your pocket, the Hexoskin could be a good option.