Ski Racing's web site has posted this totally erroneous article on the tracking-RADAR accelerometer I've developed for the Kitzbühel Hahnenkamm-Rennen:
http://www.skiracing.com/index.php?option=com_content&t...iew&id=6042&Itemid=2
What a bunch of goobers. Does Ski Racing EVER get their fact right? Idiots. They really are hopeless.
This new time measurement technology we've debuted at the 2008 Kitzbühel Hahnenkamm-Rennen has nothing to do with "special speed cameras" or with ORF, other than the fact that ORF is showing the speedometer graphic our new technology generates. It's our equipment, our ideas, our software; ORF knows nothing about it other than something new shows up on their picture.
Aaaargh!
For those of you watching tomorrow's DH broadcast on TV in Europe or on WCSN.COM in North America, I've mounted a custom-made, remote-controlled RADAR head with custom tracking firmware just above the racer's head in The Starthaus. It's interfaced via software to my DTK timing software, so when the racer launches, the RADAR tracks the racer down toward the Mousefalle and calculates an acceleration curve. The data goes to a CG in real time, generating a speedometer graphic and a display of each racer's 0-60 KmH time.
We tested it (in secret) at womens World Cup in Lake Louise in November and it worked pretty well, although it was somewhat unexciting to watch because the bad-weather start used for the chicks at LL was very flat and therefore slow. But we could see the data was solid, and that the idea works. We used it successfully during the two DH training runs here at Kitzbühel, although, again, due to a speed-control gate set in between the Startschuss and the Mousefalle, it's not as exciting as it could have been. We were hoping for a 0-100 KmH time for each racer, but the racers are scraping off speed to make the one gate, so most of them are only reaching about 70 KmH before they pass out of the RADAR's cone and disappear down the Mousefalle. Hermann Stanger, Chief of Technik for the KSC, decided after TR1 we should calculate 0-60 rather than 0-70 or some other target speed, and he's the boss, so if I can make this bee-yotch work tomorrow, a speedometer with a continuously updating needle, as well as a time from 0-60 KmH for each racer, is what you'll see on the air.
We have another remote-control tracking RADAR about 7-10 seconds before the finish, which tracks each racer's acceleration as he drops down the elevator shaft known as The Zielschuss (just below the Red Bull Arch at the Hausbergkante). We used it today for the Super-G and it worked accurately, but again, it was somewhat unexciting because a speed control gate at the bottom of The Zielschuss caused the racers to scrape off speed, and they really didn't accelerate much between the Hausberg traverse and the Zielsprung (the range of the RADAR's cone). In DH training the racers were accelerating from about 120 KmH to around 140 KmH while in the RADAR's tracking cone, which looked very trick on TV.
This is something we also tested in secret during FIS World Cup in Lake Louise both in 2006 and 2007.
One thing we have established through testing and regression analysis is that the RADAR data is spot-on. It's a very new technology we're still developing, so I can't promise it'll work perfectly tomorrow. If it works, I can't promise it'll blow your socks off. But the Broder's Skunkware / Precision Timing team is working hard with the Kitzbüheler Ski Club to introduce some interesting new technological doo-dads to ski sport. Working with the Austrian Ski Team and the KSC as clients is a blast because they are SO into ski-sport. As an American, it's frustrating to see ski racing ranked below bowling and poker in interest amongst my countrymen.
Original Post
