In the past week, Julian did further work on the electronics and networking aspects of the devices. Then Mike and Athanassios did the first analytical measurements in the Biomechanics Lab. Joanne is on travel, will be back next week.
In the Biomechanics Lab the following parameters were tested: heart rate and acceleration.
The heart rate was measured with Mike wearing the devices, while he was doing running exercise on a treadmill and bringing up the heartrate to 160. We did compare the data which the Sudden Impact devices recorded with the "official" measurement of qualified lab equipment. The other measurement was the g-value: we used a reference accelerometer and mounted it close to the device, put them both in a foam wrapping, and then dropped a ball onto this contraption from different heights. We then compared the measurements of the reference accelerometers with the data reported by the devices. This method is of course not very precise, as the "felt" acceleration of the two devices is not really identical and depends on many factors. But we were able to make some qualitative conclusions from these data. A more "realistic" test could be done with devices which had provided a robust mounting: Mike did strap them on and bounced himself against a wall, simulating a collision as it is usual in Rugby or a similar sport. This was done again with the reference accelerometer providing the reference data plot, while the devices did provide the peak acceleration data output.
We did think that we would be able to complete these tests, but so far we only went through 3 of them - the other three to be examined next week. Since our internal deadline here at Leeds Beckett has it that next week Friday is the last day when we can use the Biomechanics Lab, this will then conclude our evaluations. So one more week, then we will give scores to each of the devices and pass these on to the organizers at Farnell. As I understand it, the final overall scoring also includes the blog and documentation activities, which we here at Leeds Beckett are not judging - we are here only looking at the technical functionality.
