Sport should be fun – only then will it become an integral part of the lifestyle. As part of the COMET competence center Digital Motion, headed by Salzburg Research, industrial companies develop smart running and skiing equipment together with research institutes. The research activities are planned, coordinated and synergies between the studies are discussed in regular innovation meetings in order to achieve efficient data acquisition, sharing and analysis.

The focus of this year’s innovation meeting at the end of February was on planning and discussing the scientific contributions for the digital ski and vitality demonstrators. A total of 11 dissertations and studies including extensive measurements on this topic are being created. Some examples:

Doctoral Topics and Measurements

• Product monitoring for alpine skiing on the slopes: Can the Pyzoflex sensor technology determine the bending of the ski and thus provide information in the future about when our skis should be serviced?
• Product adaptation for alpine skiing: Can our skiing be improved by customizing ski boots and skis?
• Load and relief when skiing: Can the smart ski equipment recommend that we take a break in the hut by tracking our vitality and fatigue via biomechanical and psychophysiological measurements while skiing?
• Vitality in daily and sporting activity: How can subjective vitality be measured in everyday life and how do everyday life and running routines influence our vitality?
• Vitality-enhancing running studies: What is the relationship between biomechanical and psychophysiological parameters as well as rhythm while running to our vitality and can certain running routines influence or even improve our vitality?

COMET Project “Digital Motion in Sports, Fitness and Well-being”

Around four million euros of research volume are available for the COMET digital motion competence project for four years. Half of this budget comes from the industrial companies involved, the other half is funded by the research funding agency FFG and the economic department of the State of Salzburg.

The participating companies reflect the complex interplay in the sports and leisure industry: Component producers and integrators (Suunto, digital electronics, SCIO, textile finishing Grabher), sports product manufacturers (adidas, Atomic, Amer Sports) and service providers are also included (ABIOS, Red Bull Media House, Health Center Bärenhof, Simpliflow International) and the destination Schladming-Dachstein. Research know-how comes from the Salzburg Research Research Association (Human Motion Analytics), the University of Salzburg (IFFB Sport and Exercise Science and the Center for Human-Computer Interaction) and the École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement).

Website: www.digital-motion.at