SPORTSCIENCE

sportsci.org

News and Comment: Internet

*********************  ********************* An email-based sporadic publication of technology-related items for kinesiologists compiled by Ken Daley. Issue #27.

The International Society of Biomechanics in Sport (ISBS) coaches' information service on the web is well under way. The first site, to be used as a template for other sports, is now live. Please go to the CIS site and click on the swimming link.

Now that the service is in place we need to let the sporting population know about it in accordance with the Society's mandate to disseminate useful scientific information to sports practitioners.

Sport PE Ltd. has launched its new motion analysis website to showcase its user-friendly motion analysis software, Video Expert II. The web site contains a host of case studies that demonstrate how biomechanists, sports professionals, and medical practitioners are using this video-based software to provide meaningful feedback and assessment for their clients and patients. The program is designed to create split screen images for comparing pre- and post intervention, or comparison of movement between different orthotic treatment or bracing devices. Create videotapes for your client to show their progress or the effectiveness of your treatment. Free downloads of the program are available, and customers receive a discount when ordering online. The program sells for $350 US, and all you need to run it is a PC with a video capture card. Sport PE Ltd. can also offer custom motion analysis solutions for your business, and tailor made software for your specific needs.

Sport PE Ltd. is located in Dunedin, New Zealand and has a branch in Perth, Western Australia. The company strives to provide top quality service and products for sport scientists and medical practitioners. For additional information on Sport PE Ltd. or Video Expert II, visit the website or call +61 8 9470 3997.

Thor Besier
Sport PE Ltd
36B Leonard St Victoria Park WA 6100
http://www.sportpe.co.nz
Ph: +61 041 755 3330 Fax: +61 8 9470 3231
Email: thor=AT=sportpe.co.nz

Jim Thoma, editor, advises us that the latest Global Sport Management News is now on the web.

Terry R. Haggerty haggerty=AT=unb.ca

Here's a quick way to get the meaning of just about any word in English. Just type dictionary.com into your browser, then type the word into the search form. You get back the entries from as many as 10 definitive sources. It will even link to an acronym finder for abbreviations.

I am using the Web as a source of information for my students as well as their parents. I have two web sites that I am presently using. The sites are Mr. Kidd's Physical Education class from Lightspan.com (which is a wonderful source of educational information) and eBoard.com (which is like having your own bulletin board that you can post messages on and is very easy to use). I post announcements, have a calendar of events and assignments which helps when a student is absent, have links to physical education and health related sites, and am able to e-mail my students and parents on both of these sites. My students really like to be able to e-mail me with questions and comments. It gives them some one-on-one time with me. And no they have not e-mailed me anything that was not appropriate. Neither of the two site require HTML knowledge or how to do a web site from scratch. All you do is sign up and fill in the blanks. If you would like to look at my sites here are the usernames and passwords that I give to my students. My Lightspan web site username is "smokey" and my class password is "only you". My eBoard name is "mrkiddpeclass" and my class password is "smokey". If you are looking for an easy way to get on the web these two site are great.

Carl Kidd
PE Dept. Chair
Christa McAuliffe Middle School
Boynton Beach, Fl 33437
Phone 561-374-6612
kidd_c=AT=popmail.firn.edu
http://www.mcauliffems.org/

Recently, I have come upon a great multi-media and public relations slide-show tool that can involve students, teachers and parents. It is called SHOW MOTION from the Tripod homepage (http://www.tripod.lycos.com) website. It helps to have a Web cam, a scanner, and Real Player G2 installed. It is mostly point and click and very easy to use. It works like this - click on the text icon and you write anything you want. This will be the first slide. A right click on the slide and you can add a caption or background music. Click on files and you can add all the files from the My Documents folder (clip art, etc.). Click on snapshot and the web cam takes a still photo. Click on Scanner and anything you desire is scanned to the slide. Click on Video and you get a cam corder/movie slide. Click Preview to make changes and/or publish to upload the presentation on a homepage or a designated URL to view on the Web. The great thing about this is that you can inform the community of your curriculum, homework, long distance learning, upcoming events, PTA presentations, news, etc. Another great thing is that you can include the students in a health or physical education production. The students can help plan the show and learn about technology, too (yes, from a gym teacher).
Here are a couple of SHOW MOTION presentations I made: http://igreen.tripod.com/presentations/myschoolstuff/index.html http://igreen.tripod.com/presentations/TECHNIQUES/index.html

Gerry Cernicky
http://members.tripod.com/~igreen/newpage.html

If you're looking for new contacts and new approaches to physical activity, the Active Ontario Network and Web site is now looking for you. The network is designed to support the Active Ontario strategy, which is aimed at getting those who are currently inactive--about 62% of the adult population--to become more active where they live, work, study and play. The strategy has initiatives for seven key settings--communities, schools, workplaces, homes, the recreation system, the sport system and the health system. share and exchange ideas with others.

The Web site is being updated regularly as more initiatives are developed in each of the seven settings. It is part of a Canada-wide movement to decrease the number of inactive people.

The Active Ontario Network and Web site, the main link for connecting leaders to this strategy, is now registering physical activity leaders who want to be part of this movement. The Network gives leaders access to the most up-to-date information, materials, training and resources, as well as posting opportunities and strategies designed to increase and retain participants in physical activity programs.

Best of all, by registering with the Network, leaders have the opportunity to share and exchange ideas with others. Check out what is available right now and register at http://www.activeontario.org. Or call (416) 426-7239. It's the start of a new era in physical activity. Don't miss it!

Agnes Croxford
Managing Director Leisure Information Network
Tel: 416 426 7176 Fax: 416 426 7421

SportLogiciel.com is a French Web site about software for sport (very soon in English!). This site is built by Patrick Dupuis creator of Monitor Development, a French company specialized in software development and Internet for sports
Purposes of the site are: 1- providing any French and international information about sport software; 2- allowing authors and editors to present their software; 3- contributing to improve training methods by using new technology; 4- presenting our products. If you know good software for our database, you're welcome!

Patrick Dupuis patrick.dupuis=AT=sportlogiciel.com

BlueLight.com and Kmart have teamed up with Yahoo! to provide:

- Free e-mail: yourname=AT=yahoo.com

- Personalized my Yahoo! page with links to your e-mail account, news updates, special shopping discounts and more.

- Instant messenger to talk to your friends online in real time.

- Chat, calendar, World Wide Web search and more, all for free!

To install the software and start using the Internet for free today, please go to www.bluelight.com/isp.html. While you are there, check out our great deals on products that you use everyday. And for a limited time, receive free shipping and a $5 Kmart cash card redeemable at any Kmart store -- for any order over $20.00 made through BlueLight.com. This special offer is limited to one card per customer.

A four-hour online certification examination called Tek.Xam has been developed to offer liberal arts graduates a way to demonstrate to potential employers that, whatever their degrees may indicate, they have mastered the technical skills necessary for careers in today's organizations. "It's very clear there are millions of college students who are earning degrees in areas that don't indicate technology skills -- liberal arts, education and other non-tech areas," says Tek.Xam executive director Brian Regrut. "While many of the students taking the exam may not be able to program C++, they could work in marketing or manufacturing where those skills are needed. There's a big hole American businesses need to fill." So far, 67 academic institutions in 24 states have offered a pilot or formal version of the test, and about 1,700 students have taken it. (New York Times 3 May 2000)

Fathom, an online venture led by Columbia University, aims to strike a balance between the business and academic worlds with its for-profit site that will provide cutting-edge intellectual resources. The site will sell distance-education courses and academic texts, and will offer free scholarly articles and lectures. Joining Columbia in Fathom are the New York Public Library, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Cambridge University Press, the British Library, and the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History. The site was officially unveiled last month, and has not yet posted any articles. When Ann G. Kirschner, who created the popular NFL Web site, came up with the idea of Fathom two years ago, she thought the site could not be created within a university. However, she learned that Columbia was worried about the commercial sector taking over the business of delivering scholarly content and joined forces with the school. Fathom will strive to provide a return on investments while remaining dedicated to its educational focus. (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 May 2000)

Learning in the Real World is a California-based nonprofit that conveys a message of growing concern among a select group of educators: too little is known about how computers impact education to justify the large amount of spending on technology in schools. Many parents and school officials nationwide assume that computers are a necessary tool for learning basic subjects such as math and reading, even for students in elementary schools. Parents also fear their children will not be able to compete in later life if they are not exposed to computers at a very young age. Critics are concerned that due to these beliefs and fears, U.S. school districts are spending money on educational technology instead of using the funds to lower class size or extend the school day. They believe that research demonstrates hands-on learning is more effective than keyboard learning during children's early school years. Defenders of educational technology say computers motivate students at all levels and enable children to visualize abstract concepts in ways that books and lectures cannot match. (Washington Post, 2 May 2000)

Shopping online for a Mother's Day gift and can't decide which perfume to choose? Not a problem any more. TriSenx has patented a technology that will let you click and smell. Using a device something like a desktop printer, you can download a smell or taste from the Internet. A picture of a strawberry, for example, both smells and tastes like, well, a strawberry. The scent technology, which several companies have been working on, works by mixing chemicals to create the desired smell. The scents are printed on a cardstock paper now, but future plans call for them to print to a communion-like wafer that would make it easier to sample tastes from the Web. Will it catch on? At its current price of $398, skeptics abound. "If it's going to be a couple of hundred bucks I'd be hard-pressed to see who's going to go out and buy a smell generator," says one analyst. Numerous businesses have expressed interest in the idea, including fragrance makers and cookie companies. (San Jose Mercury News 1 May 2000) http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/481779l.htm

Embedded devices, which are continuously shrinking in size and can communicate wirelessly, are the wave of the future. Embedded devices already pervade the everyday environment. "Ninety-eight percent of all processors we have on the planet are not in desktop systems. They are, in fact, in cars on factory floors, in homes," says Dr. Gaetano Borriello of the University of Washington. One use of embedded devices will be in the field of medicine. Embedded devices, including microscopic sensors, microscopic processors and microscopic radio transceivers, could be placed in medicine that would be swallowed by the patient. These devices could then keep an eye on medical conditions and treat the conditions with drugs while sending data to a portable server in the home. The data could then be sent to the doctor over the Web. Until the systems gain the ability to allow users to decide who gets to see the data, privacy will be an issue. Eventually there will be a wireless network that will provide network and Internet access for controls, processors and sensors embedded in equipment.

Advances in genetics might eventually lead to the use of bacteria to replace silicon's role in powering computers. Scientists are now at the stage of programming DNA to perform computations in cells. Researchers at Boston University have created a biological toggle switch using genes to turn the switch to on and off positions that correspond to the ones and zeroes in today's computers. The biological switch was built with a circular section of DNA that holds two genes that suppress each other, so while one gene is on the other gene is off. The genes can be switched on and off with chemicals or a temperature change. Although the switch is slow compared to traditional computers, the mechanism proves that cells can be programmed in ways that could lead to useful computations. Although biocomputing is still in its early stages, advances in the field could ultimately lead to jars of bacteria that serve as computers and cells that are injected into the body to help patients. (New York Times, 1 June 2000)

At the recent "Next 20 Years" gathering in San Francisco, futurist Paul Saffo warned participants about the threat of cyburbia -- a scenario in which "any fool with a double-wide trailer and a satellite dish can tow it onto a piece of unoccupied land in the middle of the Nevada desert and have enough power to compute." Making it all possible will be a washing-machine-sized device capable of generating electricity with only fresh water as a by-product. Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard's Stanley Williams predicted a future where sports fans could experience the game from anywhere on the field, and visual entertainment in which the "viewer" could insert him- or herself anywhere in the scene, or even participate as one of the characters. And Benchmark Capital General Partner Bill Gurley envisioned browsable desktop economies, fueled by a Napster-style computer architecture in which every PC is connected to its peers, rather than the client-server model now common. Users will be able to log on and "play" the economy: "The economy is a game as well. So all of a sudden -- with everyone connected to the Web and an easy way to transfer money, and the ability to compete for your time or expertise -- I think you'll see a world evolve literally within the next 20 years very similar to what's described in Neal Stephenson's 'Snow Crash'... The notion that you might wake up one day, take a shower, walk into your office, put on a headphone, and sit down to a keyboard, and literally jack into an entire different economy is very possible." (Wired News 5 Jul 2000)
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,37360,00.html

Moving Together is not an official publication of Maharishi University of Management. It is nothing other than a personal try to share/create a collective wisdom in the area of technology as it impacts professional Kinesiologists.

Ken Daley
kdaley=AT=mum.edu
http://www.mum.edu/exss_dept/daley.html
Associate Professor
Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences
Maharishi University of Management
Fairfield, Iowa USA 52557
Member of the Internet Developers Association

Previous Issue  Home Page