"Simulating Michael Phelps" -New Technologies Push Olympic Swimmers to New Records

When we picture computer technology improving human abilities, we imagine cybernetic systems and metallic skeletons.  We don't imagine the computers just telling a regular Joe "You're doing it wrong" - but that's exactly how the US Olympic team is improving their lap times.

Professor Wei of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) is bringing hydrodynamics experience from his time with the U.S. Navy to an even more extreme environment - the Olympics.  The fruits of lifetimes of dedicated training are determined in a few minutes, and for the last few months Olympians have been adapting their stroke according to Professor Wei's results.

The idea of simulating swimmers isn't new, but while mathematical models can help you, they can't beat real data, which is what Wei's Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) delivers.  It might sound like part of a starship transporter system, but it's a sophisticated camera which records the water flow over an athlete's body, highlighting wasteful eddies and vortices whose drag can cost crucial milliseconds.

This real-world feedback has allowed trainers to adjust their regimen to best effect, providing second-by-second information on when time is being lost.  Professor Wei is certainly the man to talk to about swimming - other things he's modeled include bottlenose dolphins, and it's hard to get more swimmy than that.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Scientific Swimming http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2477

Comments

[Weight Lifting for Beginners]

Excellent content, I will recommend to my friends, I found very interesting article on the internet, including this ... I will leave an input ----> Weight Lifting for Beginners isn't hard.

[Money Affiliate Program]

If you have not yet heard of the amazing opportunity afforded by a money affiliate program, you are missing out on the cash-producing opportunity of a lifetime: Money Affiliate Program