Friday, November 5, 2010

Interactive Boxing Bag

Domyos Interactive Punching Bag

 

This is interactive boxing bag is also like a beep test

Interactive Torso


Made from blow moulded polyethylene plastic, the Slam Man will absorb punches and quickly return to its original shape. Designed to withstand a heavy pummeling it will work well during all temperatures. Fill the base with 240lbs of sand to gain ultimate stability, ensuring that whatever you throw at it the Slam Man will remain sturdy.

 
Has the following features......
  • 5 boxing programs
  • 3 training levels
  • 8 target lights
  • Performance feedback
  • 10kg when empty
  • Fills with 240lbs of sand
  • Includes instruction DVD, boxing gloves and boxers eating plan
  • Stands up to any beating you can inflict
 
Conclusion:
What I noticed from the Slam man it is more like a beep test with outputting lights that the user hits. I would rather see the the torso giving out instructions to the user that they would follow.
 

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Boxing Bag's in GYM's

After interviewing 3 different GYM instructors including the college GYM instructor, the reasoning behind not having a boxing bag is of people messing and not taking it seriously. This even lead to a court case as someone twisted their wrist! For this reason I'm not sure if a boxing bag is the right component I should utilize for my project I still must talk to a few more different instructors for their opinion on using multimedia to motivate people to get fit. I also have got a few books to read, there about motivation in sports so I shall see what they shall say about the issue and it would be good to see what traditional forms of motivation included.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

"A Innovation Eco-System"

On Monday the 1st of November we were invited to a private open day of the Nimbus Center on the Cork Institute of Technology campus, for masters and 4th year students of the multimedia department. The Nimbus Center is Ireland’s premier Business Incubation Center. The aim of the Nimbus center is to "Establish a one-stop-shop for innovation which is embedded systems for indigenous industry in the Cork region". They give the chance for young entrepreneurs to make their innovation ideas a reality  while also giving them the opportunity to work with Industry. The center is involved in multidisciplinary  projects as it uses CIT facilities and staff. This facility only opened in 2007 and has been an instant success. The Nimbus center has a staggering 65 researchers/postgraduates and 70 different company partnerships. It has two designated groups  within in the center Research groups and Industry groups. 
Research Groups include
- Adaptive Wireless Systems
- Smart System Integration

Industry Groups include
- Technologies for embedded computing

After the presentation we got to meet Kevin O Mahony a student who is doing his PhD in the Nimbus Center. Kevin has accomplished a MA in Media Design as he was the first student to do our course. He demonstrated his Multi-touch Meettable. 

I found meeting Kevin very beneficial as he gave me good advice for the course as its different talking to some one who actually has done the course in comparison to lecturer's who are more to guide us in the right direction.

Anyone going skiing this xmas?


These are the newest type of ski goggles you can get, which are GPS-enabled. They display information such as your speed, temperature and even how far you have traveled. What I found most impressive is the fact that it displays the information two meters in front of the user. The goggles are also efficient in the way they are "glove friendly" so you wont be adjusting setting bare handed in on top of the Swiss mountains.



This concept was created by Recon CEO Dan Eisenhardt as he wanted to create swimming goggles that displayed the time so he wouldn't have to stop to check the time. Unfortunately they haven't created those glasses yet but are still working on them and also goggles for biking and even sunglasses.

Robot able to mimic a human eye


It sounds like another step in the right direction to making a human like robot  prototype as if like the film iRobot. This super fast robot has been created by a set of German students from the Institute of Applied Mechanics. The robotic camera mimics the motion of a human beings eye movement and even moves at super human speeds. It sounds better than the human eye as it can look in any direction and can imitate our fastest movements which can reach speeds of 1000 degrees per second but the robots limit is 2500 degrees per second. 

From 2D to 3D with a Photo Frame

Nikon based in Japan have introduced a new 7.2-inch digital photo frame. It gives the effect of transforming 2D photos into glorious new 3D photos. It uses a autostereoscopic screen, which means that 3D glasses aren't needed to give the 3D effect. A person does need to be at a distance of about 1 meter to obtain the 3D effect. It is powered by Android 2.1 mobile OS with a miod-range of 800 * 600 resolution.The NF-300i supports wi-fi so is capable of being cable free, but also has modest Ethernet and usb connections.

Further Research

I'm going to begin researching which sensor's are most appropriate to detect movement or power I will also start using Ardunio boards to accomplish this.

I also plan on doing experiments to see which media would be best to communicate with a person while they are training. I will use people with boxing background and get feedback off them to see which they taught was the most effective. I also will talk with other martial arts instructors to see if I could get more feedback off them.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Persuasive Technology in Martial Arts

I had an informal meeting with my Martial Arts instructor Frank Murphy about how could technology help teach or improve a person's martial arts skill. We discussed that if you could have sensors on a boxing bag measuring punch per minute or something of the sort it could improve peoples speed and accuracy. It wouldn't necessarily improve a person's technique as that would have to analyzed by a professional instructor but still could be very effective. I also discussed this sort of idea involving a boxing bag with Paul Green in a formal meeting on Wednesday evening in his office. What I propose to do is have sensor's connected to the boxing bag and using flash to maybe display it on a screen that gives a user feedback. Also I could have the program giving the user instructions what to do (Hook, jab etc) and having a leader board for speed for certain programs. 
                        I think this could also encourage more people without a boxing background to use a boxing bag as part of their work out. As they would have a aim and be given instructions to what to do. As I am unfamiliar with flash I'm not sure what I could do with it but I would like to try have an avatar resembling the person hitting the boxing bag on screen copying their punches and kicks.

Persuasive Technology

Persuasive technology is defined as a computer system, device, or application that is intentionally designed to change a person’s attitude or behavior (Fogg 2003). This technology uses tools (e.g., pedometer or balance board), media (e.g., video, audio, or both), and social interaction (e.g., playing with another person) to persuade individuals to adopt the behavior without their actually knowing it. Although the DDR was not developed specifically to promote physical activity, it has changed exercise attitudes and behavior of children and youth using principles of persuasive technology. Dance Dance Revolution uses video, music, and a dance platform to capture interest and engage children in the activity without their being fully aware that they are exercising. The emerging field of persuasive technology has enormous potential for promoting physical activity and healthy behaviors (Fogg and Eckles 2007; Zhu 2008).