SMARTER STRATEGIES

Smart Sneakers Make Every Runner a Star

Joe Maglitta | Date: 12-01-10 | Comments

Disposable RFID tags and SMS capture marathoners' big moments�and sponsor revenues.

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Smart Sneakers Make Every Runner a Star
Wondrously engineered running shoes. Space-age sports drinks. Sweat-sucking super fabrics. High-tech advances make it easier for today's runners to perform (or at least outfit) like world-class competitors. Now, two simple technologies often seen by IT as boring are giving even weekend plodders a fleeting taste of running celebrity and, for a modest charge, immortality.

Finishers flash star attitude at recent Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in Los Angeles.

Cheap, disposable RFID tags affixed to runners' shoelaces let savvy race organizers wirelessly track and time every contestant throughout a race. The tags send real-time location and time data via Simple Messaging Service (SMS) to friends and family cell phones and official timing systems. Registered users can watch live streaming video of their favorite runner finishing via smartphone or Website.

After the race, the RFID data can be used onsite to create a variety of keepsakes, such as custom, engraved medals featuring each runner's official finish times, before the runner has cooled down. Runner data also ensures runners' pre-race duds get back home safely via UPS (see below).

Smarter Technology had a chance to see the system in action at a recent Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, a popular national charity series featuring rock bands playing for 20,000+ runners along a 26.2-mile route. Here's how it works:

Every registered runner gets a D-Tag, a single-use RFID tag encased in laminated paper manufactured by Seattle-based Impinj.

The high-frequency (900MHz) tag includes a silicon chip and aluminum antenna placed on a PET (polyethylene terephtalate) substrate, which can be read by timing mats placed along the course.

Each runner then affixes the D-Tag to his or her shoe and is ready to rock.

Output from the chips is tracked onsite by Race Central, which provides computerized registration and finish-line systems for running events, walks and triathlons.

The company uses RFID tracking technology from ChronoTrack and proprietary software to provide race-day results, live Internet results and instant finisher labels. Custom online registration and fundraising pages are provided by WebDataCenter, a subsidiary. For more, see here.

Bright orange and blue plastic timing mats are set at specific intervals along the course: 5 kilometers, halfway, etc. The mats let organizers split individual times for every runner.

Data is sent from mat to controller to WiFi or cellular upload. ChronoTrack servers process the data and download live stats to onsite PCs.

"As a runners cross the mat, their time is recorded and information sent to offsite servers," explains Dennis Ikenberry of Race Central.

Race Central can track 20,000+ runners in real time.

"Once we get an athlete's time, we crunch the numbers and create a text message, which is then delivered to anyone that has opted-in to track a participant during the event. The messages are delivered within one minute of crossing the timing mats."

Next: Organizers Win Too >>

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