Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Embedded programming and real-time signal processing of swimming strokes

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sports Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The research outlined in this paper was conducted to allow real-time processing, transmission and presentation of data to swimming coaches and subsequently their swimmers in a training environment, focused on providing information relevant to strokes in free swimming. This was achieved using a wearable wireless sensor and embedded programming techniques, using accelerations involved in the swimming stroke to provide relevant features for coaches. Current methods used do not offer real-time response to coaches, which results in the lack of real-time feedback and significantly increased post-session analysis time. Filtering and signal processing algorithms are described here, which allow real-time data analysis to be embedded within a wireless sensor node. The system significantly reduces the time for processing acquired data and has delivered a novel monitoring device suitable for operation within the harsh environment of the pool.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Maglischo EW (1993) Swimming even faster, Updated and Expanded. Mayfield Publishing Company, London

  2. Alberty M, Sidney M, Huot-Marchand F, Hespel JM, Pelayo P (2005) Intracyclic velocity variations and arm coordination during exhaustive exercise in front crawl stroke. Int J Sports Med 26(6):471–475

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Seifert L, Chollet D, Bardy BG (2004) Effect of swimming velocity on arm coordination in the front crawl: a dynamic analysis. J Sports Sci 22(7):651–660

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Berger MAM (1999) Determining propulsive force in front crawl swimming: a comparison of two methods. J Sports Sci 17(2):97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Thompson KG, MacLaren DPM, Lees A, Atkinson G (2004) The effects of changing pace on metabolism and stroke characteristics during high-speed breaststroke swimming. J Sports Sci 22(2):149–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Wilson BD (2008) Development in video technology for coaching. Sports Technol 1(1):34–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Quintic Consultancy Ltd. (online). Available: http://www.quintic.com/

  8. Dartfish (online). Available: http://www.dartfish.com/en/index.htm

  9. MediaCybernetics, MediaCybernetics (2011) (online). Available: http://www.mediacy.com/index.aspx?page=IPP

  10. Davey NP (2005) An accelerometer-based system for elite athlete swimming performance analysis. In: Proceedings of SPIE, Sydney, pp. 409–415

  11. Ohgi Y (2002) Microcomputer-based acceleration sensor device for sports biomechanics -stroke evaluation by using swimmer’s wrist acceleration. In: Proceedings of IEEE Sensor Conference, vol 1. Florida, USA, pp 699–704

  12. James DA, Davey N, Rice T (2004) An accelerometer based sensor platform for in situ elite athlete performance analysis. In: Proceedings of IEEE Sensors, vol 3. Vienna, Austria, USA, pp 1373–1376

  13. Titterton DH, Weston JL, I. of E. Engineers (2004) Strapdown inertial navigation technology. IET

  14. Woodman OJ (2007) An introduction to inertial navigation

  15. Analog Devices [Online]. Available: http://www.analog.com/en/index.html

  16. Edwards TS (2007) Effects of aliasing on numerical integration. Mech Sys Signal Process 21(1):165–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Thong YK, Woolfson MS, Crowe JA, Hayes-Gill BR, Challis RE (2002) Dependence of inertial measurements of distance on accelerometer noise. Meas Sci Technol 13(8):1163–1172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Koukoulas T, Young RCD, Chatwin CR (2005) Quantised phase filters with binary low and high pass amplitude response: the effect of quantisation for scale and rotation input distortions. Optics Lasers Eng 43(9):963–976

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Hernández W (2001) Improving the response of an accelerometer by using optimal filtering. Sensors Actuators A Phys 88(3):198–208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. GyungNam Jo and Choi HS (2004) Underwater navigation system with velocity measurement by a horizon Kalman filter. In: OCEANS’04. MTTS/IEEE TECHNO-OCEAN’ 04, vol 3. pp 1612–1619

  21. Callaway A, Cobb JE, Jones I (2009) A comparison of video and accelerometer based approaches applied to performance monitoring in swimming. Int J Sports Sci Coaching 4 (Online). Available: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/10773/. Accessed 02 Nov 2010

  22. Kistler (2010) Kistler—sensors for pressure, force, acceleration and torque. Available: http://www.kistler.com/. Accessed 06-Oct-2010

  23. Pressure imaging systems for sleep, patient safety and automotive testing—XSENSOR (online). Available: http://www.xsensor.com/. Accessed 06 Oct 2010

  24. Yang GZ and Yacoub M (2006) Body sensor networks, 1st ed. Springer, London

  25. Karl H and Willig A (2007) Protocols and Architectures for Wireless Sensor Networks. Wiley-Interscience, Chichester

  26. Madisetti V and Williams DB (1998) The digital signal processing handbook. CRC Press, MA

  27. Jones CE, Sivalingam KM, Agrawal P, Chen JC (2001) A survey of energy efficient network protocols for wireless networks. Wirel Netw 7(4):343–358

    Google Scholar 

  28. FANUC Robotics: industrial robots (Online). Available: http://www.fanucrobotics.com/. Accessed 19 Oct 2010

  29. Aggarwal P, Syed Z, Niu X, El-Sheimy N (2008) A standard testing and calibration procedure for low cost MEMS inertial sensors and units. J Navig 61(2):323–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Rizun P (2008) Optimal wiener filter for a body mounted inertial attitude sensor. Journal Navig 61(3):455–472

    Google Scholar 

  31. Simon D (2001) Kalman filtering. Embedded Systems Programming 14(6):72–79

  32. Seifert L, Delignieres D, Boulesteix L, Chollet D (2007) Effect of expertise on butterfly stroke coordination. J Sports Sci 25(2):131–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Mullane SL, Justham LM, West AA, Conway PP (2010) Design of an end-user centric information interface from data-rich performance analysis tools in elite swimming. Procedia Eng 2(2):2713–2719

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sports Technology Institute, Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK

    T. Le Sage & S. E. Slawson

  2. Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK

    A. Bindel, P. P. Conway, L. M. Justham & A. A. West

Authors
  1. T. Le Sage
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. Bindel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. P. P. Conway
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. L. M. Justham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. S. E. Slawson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. A. A. West
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. Le Sage.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Le Sage, T., Bindel, A., Conway, P.P. et al. Embedded programming and real-time signal processing of swimming strokes. Sports Eng 14, 1 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12283-011-0070-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12283-011-0070-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation