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Ski faster with motion capture

Fusion Motion Capture set to help professional skiers.

Fusion Motion Capture (FMC) is a new sports technology that captures skiers’ movements in 3D motion.

Published in the journal Sports Technology, the system is described as being small sensors attached to the athlete’s limbs, helmet and feet to generate the raw data of their movement. All data is then calculated to reproduce accurate estimates of the skier’s position, velocity and acceleration.

The team from Massey University in New Zealand tested the technology in a pilot study entitled: “Fusion Motion Capture: a Prototype System using Inertial Measurement Units and GPS for the Biomechanical Analysis of Ski Racing”.

Lead author, Matthew Brodie, Massey University, said: “With FMC, it is possible to capture motion and dynamics of alpine ski racing throughout the ski run while maintaining high resolution. This is the first time full body motion of an athlete skiing an entire course can be captured with results returned as soon as the run is completed.”

FMC was developed to capture motion in large spaces which is impractical for video motion capture.

Sports technology

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