With the Connected Boot, developed by Salzburg Research together with Atomic and the University of Salzburg, skiers receive tailor-made real-time feedback on their own riding technique directly on their mobile phone thanks to state-of-the-art sensor technology.
Challenge
Sport and movement in everyday life and leisure are becoming increasingly important. The measurement and evaluation of movement quality play an important part here. Atomic wanted to provide the skiers, both professional and amateur athletes, with an opportunity to analyze and improve their technique directly on site. Conventional methods such as video feedback are time-consuming, expensive, and completely not available for recreational athletes. Existing mobile systems are often inaccurate and not geared to specific sports, such as skiing.
Solution
The Connected Boot is an innovative, sensor-based approach for quantifying and analyzing skiing. Two interial sensors on the ski boot record movement data such as edge angle and curve radius. Algorithms calculate metrics such as the scientifically verified “carving score“, a metric between 1 (equivalent to a “snow plow”) and 10 (perfect carving), which evaluates the quality of the turns. The data is transmitted via Bluetooth to a smartphone app for Android and iOS, which gives skiers instant feedback on individual techniques. This type of feedback was previously only possible in the laboratory.
The Connected Boot was developed by the experts from sports science, data science and product development at Salzburg Research and the University of Salzburg during several years of research.
Benefits
The Connected Boot gives skiers of all abilities insight into their own performance. They can improve their technique and reach their potential, thus improving the skiing experience. The direct feedback allows mistakes or weaknesses to be quickly identified and corrected.
The Connected Boot is a part of a digital winter sports ecosystem that connects skiers, coaches and suppliers. Atomic has already tested the Connected Boot in pilot projects and plans to reach 30 percent of customers with digital products and services in the medium term. In this way, the company is not only driving forward the digitization of winter sports, but also strengthening Austria’s position as a leading winter sports nation.
Salzburg Research has been awarded the Houska Prize 2023, 1st place in the category of non-university research, for the Connected Boot.
See also: Erfahrungsbericht: Mit dem Atomic Connected Boot auf der Piste
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