HIGH-TECH SLUG FEST

ASEE Prism, Mar 2005 by Grose, Thomas

SPORTS

PRIOR TO last year's Olympic games, the Australian Institute of Sport wanted a new, high-tech way to train its boxing team. So it sought assistance from Victoria's Swinburne University of Technology. A small team of students led by Kane Partridge developed a "boxing suit," consisting of gloves, a vest, and headgear. The suit is embedded with microprocessors and communicates using wireless Bluetooth technology. It can monitor a match in real time, instantly noting the location and timing of punches, including those that land below the belt. And coaches and boxers can review the data afterward. Partridge believes the suit can help make boxing less dangerous "by shifting [its] emphasis from brute force to target and defense skills, making it a more modern-day game." The boxing suit may also find application in other sports such as martial arts and rugby. Alas, despite the computational help, the Aussie's boxing team came home from Athens with nary a medal. -TG