Olympic medal winner Thomas Schmidt develops the “intelligent slalom gate”

No more penalties for the gate judges?

“Intelligent slalom gates” – A revolution in canoe slalom? Thomas Schmidt, Sydney 2000 Gold medal winner in the K1, has developed an intelligent slalom gate by putting movement sensors in the poles. The challenge is to distinguish between the gate being touched by the athlete ( incl. boat/paddle) or the water. It seems Thomas Schmidt and Michael Keim are successful [test phase]. The test paddler in this video is Ricarda Funk.

Note Sportscene – We believe that a technique that can detect the touch of a pole by the paddler should be implemented:

  1. Set up a project team and involve a small group of athletes and coaches. Communicate what you are doing.
  2. The project team implements the technique. Implementing includes evolving:
  3. Initially the technology will not be perfect and some athletes will not get a touch, when actually touching the gate, and vice versa. Log these incorrect detections to improve the software and algorithms.

 

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