STMicroelectronics and Rossignol: With motion sensors, the virtual reality applied to skiing

It's the day dedicated to testing, there are conditions of the track and the best snow. The descent begins in the best way, the first two "walls" exceeded speed, perfect ski, good aerodynamics. The Rossignol World Cup athlete is going well. On the control screen you can see the avatar can not move with the data sampling done every tenth of a second. The avatar is green and blue when the athlete is getting his own best time.
But then the last corner of this long test of the downhill, the avatar turns red. weight distribution wrong, skidding, unbalance, fall.
the athlete returned to the hotel downloads the data on a USB stick and insert it into his laptop. It puts the racing suit that is instrumented with sensors to tiny little box that the dot on the legs, arms and torso. The gyroscopes micrometer combined with the accelerometers, magnetometers and pressure sensors  combined, have registered at any time of the descent of the position, acceleration and torque of the various points of the body.
The athlete repeats from detention, movements of the descent, led by the beep of the sensors and their avatar on the screen. Until the final corner, the wrong move that repeats several times, up to fix it and finally get the green light.

At Rossignol, the French giant ski industry, this project has just begun. The basic tool is: the suit in the ST Microelectronics MEMS developed. A system of multiple micro-sensors, coordinated by a microprocessor capable of capturing all the coordinates of the movement, to store them or send them to a computer that processes them in real time on a 3D model. 'From now on i-Nemo, our integrated sensory system, comes to describing nine degrees of freedom for each sensory point - says Nunzio Abbate (head of the Laboratory of Catania mechatronics ST-M) to the microphones of The Nova24 Sole 24ORE - and we are completing a new version of the suit with a radio transmitter. "What we need to Rossignol. "We did some testing with other sensor technologies, such as a micro camera, but with disappointing results - explains Nicolas Puget, head of the mechanical Rossignol -. Skiing lives in a hostile environment, there is half water, speed, shock. Now the arrival of sensory systems compact, solid state and low-cost open spaces of possibilities very large. We think, in 2-3 years to develop truly innovative training systems, both for the professional athlete to the beginner. " In the laboratories of St-M, in fact, is working on versions of the Nemo-still smaller, integrated and low cost. "And above all, able to communicate with each other via wireless - says Abbate -. This means that there will not even need a suit, but will suffice for many applications of the bracelets on the wrists, waist and legs. And then even a suit in which the sensory system will be "woven" inside. "

"The body control is an activity that will go beyond just the sports skiing" says Puget. And also accessible. "With current technology, a sensory suit costs about 50 thousand dollars. We count down to short, with our i-MEMS and Nemo, an order of magnitude - Abbate says - and again. Up to 500-100 euros a few years. At that point it will become a tool widely used, both for the sport that the medical. "