EUROPEAN ATHLETICS INNOVATION
AWARDS 2012
TECHNOLOGY CATEGORY
“AUTOMATIC RACE START DETECTING SIGNAL FOR HEARING
IMPAIRED ATHLETES “
1. INTRODUCTION
This project consists of the specification, development, testing and application of an automatic
starting signal for people with sensorial disabilities at adapted sport competitions.
The adapted sport is the physical activity that is likely to accept changes to enable the
participation of people with physical, mental or sensorial disabilities.
Its origin is very recent, although physical activity, sport and games take its roots with the
person itself, in relation to people with disabilities their history is less extensive, as can be seen
that after the First and Second World Wars and the large number of disabled veterans is when
they initiated the first steps in the practice of sports.
It is in 1944 when sport began to use as a mean of rehabilitation and in 1960 when first took
place the Paralympics games. This phenomenon has grown to reach the current level in which
each day the participation of people with disabilities in sport is more standardized and
practiced many disciplines are practiced from the recreational to competitive levels, such as:
athletics, biking, swimming, wheelchair tennis, table tennis, football, archery, basketball,
volleyball, sailing, skiing, weightlifting, boccia, goalball, etc..
The Paralympics games are the official Olympic competition for handicapped athletes and they
take place as soon as the Olympic Games are finished, in the same location. In those games
take part athletes with motor, physical, visual impairments and cerebral palsy, except from
athletes with hearing problems. The athletes with hearing problems cannot compete at
Paralympics games, because the hearing loss does not affect the same way the other
disabilities do.
Nevertheless, there is a need for separate games for those athletes who are deaf or have
hearing impairment as they have special communication needs.
As a consequence, in 1994 the “Committee International des Sport de Sourd” ( C.I.S.S) was
founded and the competition for deaf people started. When the I.O.C( international Olympic
Committee) recognized the CISS in 1955, the World games for deaf people have started
celebrating every four years as well as the winter games.
This standardization of the sport makes people with disabilities willing and able to participate
as equals in competition with people without disabilities, for which they are supported by
advanced assistive technologies.
Actually, this project aims to develop a system that allows people with sensorial disabilities can
take part in sports competitions with no difference compared to other athletes without
disabilities.
The starting signal (kick-off), which usually starts the race, does not apply to those
competitions in which participants have sensory limitations, especially people with hearing
impairments.
In those events, it is increasingly common for athletes with no sensorial limitations to take part
together with athletes with hearing and vision and sensory problems, or other disabilities, in a
logical effort of all sectors involved in sports to promote inclusion of people with disabilities in
conventional competition, thus avoiding the marginalization of them. Therefore, we must find
a system that eases the race start without damage for people with disabilities.
The solution is intended to be an effective tool both in training and competition to allow the
athlete to improve their times and beat new records. Through an electronic system and
software, the project aims to reduce the reaction times of the athlete, informing about the exit
in a time in milliseconds and using disability-friendly interfaces such as lights or vibrating
systems.
It is intended that this solution can be applied to any race for handicapped people, such as
athletics, rowing, skiing ...
Despite all the technological advances in the area of adapted sports, it is still difficult to say
there is equality between competitors with or without disabilities. Few athletes who are deaf
or hearing -impaired are able to compete on equal terms with athletes with normal hearing in
the summer and winter Olympic Games.
This issue falls more heavily on short-distance tests where rapid reaction of the athlete is vital
in achieving marks, records and performance improvements.
For instance at the sprint races (100, 200, 400 meters ...) the way a deaf athlete realizes that
the judge has fired the starter’s gun is given by the perception of vibratory motion on the floor
produced by the sound generated by the shot, by visual observation of the explosion when the
gun is operated or the help of a coach, who after listening to the starting order, touches the
back of the athlete informing that he/she must start. Only in international championships for
deaf athletes, these athletes have a light system for starting.
In any other competition, a deaf athlete is always at a disadvantage in comparison to an
athlete without the disability, losing up to several tenths of seconds in the sprint events that
may involve the possibility of getting a mark required for participation in a championship or
even the option of qualifying for a medal at a high level competition.
AUTOMATIC STARTING SIGNAL DETECTION SYSTEM
The main objective of this project is to develop automatic fire detection system for supporting
people with sensory disabilities in sports events and suitable for trainings, equipped with
wireless, autonomous sensors (no power supply through batteries), high speed communication
and computing and capable of minimizing response times in milliseconds by informing the
athlete through the use of accessible interfaces.
This project arises from the detected need in the competitions for the deaf and hearing
impaired people to compete on the open events, that is to say, to "face" people without
disabilities. For this reason, we will collaborate on the project Antonio Cid ,with a professor
and researcher at the Department of Physical Education and Sports University of the Basque
Country, who is an athletics coach and trains people with sensory disabilities and therefore will
ensure the final utility of it. Also we have counted with the invaluable assistance of the
Adapted sports Federation of Guipuzkoa when designing the project and testing it.
The main objective pursued by this project is to take control of the race start in sports events
for people with visual and hearing disabilities, and for that the technological challenges faced
are:
• Independence: The system should run on any sporting event in which the starting of the race
is given by a starting gun. This solution is not used to modify any currently existing system and
its size will allow placing it next to the athlete at the starting, without violating the regulations
and without damaging other participants.
• Speed: The speed of the communication is the key. Once the starting gun is fired, the sound
and light indicating the start should be received by the athlete as simultaneously as possible.
• Synchronization: in the case of the centralized architecture, all the starting lights should turn
on in order to avoid advantages.
• Autonomy: the detection system will be a standalone system that is to say that will be
battery operated.
• Sealing: The system will be built to withstand external situations or water salinity.
• Wireless communication: one of the greatest challenges will be to choose a reliable and
efficient communication between the mechanism which gives the starting signal and the
indicator lights. To do this, we analyze from the following wireless communications: Bluetooth,
Zigbee ...
• Aesthetics: the system will be provided according to the aesthetics defined in this type of
sports facilities.
• Portability: a small size system that allows the user to carry it in the bag in which usually
carries the material and the specific competition dress.
SOCIAL OBJECTIVES
The aim is to provide people with sensory disabilities with the equal opportunities when
competing, thus providing an inclusive and fair competition.
Also the launch of the project on the market of the sports events also seeks to motivate people
with sensory limitations to the sport, not only professionally but also at “amateur” level and by
fostering the physical activity and using it as a therapeutic and socializing tool for this group.
STATE OF THE ART
The control devices used currently in sports events for people without disabilities are based on
the use of any device that emits sound, usually a gun with blanks.
In case of people with hearing impairments several methods are use to start the race by means
of visual and auditory stimuli such as the use of flags or flash generated by the gun shot itself.
In other cases the coach touches the back of the athlete as a start signal. However, these
methods reduce the effectiveness of the athlete performance by increasing reaction time.
At the time of drafting this proposal we are unaware of technological systems aimed to
overcome this problem. Then the Research and Technology supports of this project are:
• Research on technologies to capture sound, especially in receiving and processing multiple
signals.
• Research in wireless networking technologies and sensor networks.
AUDIO CAPTURE TECHNOLOGIES
On the market we can find several solutions or devices in the field of sound signal detection,
yet they are all home oriented and the response time is not a good deterministic factor. Below
are some examples of these devices:
One of this is the fire Alarm Detector for hotel room CENTUNION FIRE, which is an electronic
system that detects activation of the siren or fire alarm in a hotel room. By detecting the
sound it activates a vibrating pad and strobe light that sparkles. This system is suitable for
using in any building where the fire alarm is located in the same room as the CENTUNION
system. The system is not reliable for detecting audible alarms located in other rooms or
corridors.
Device detectors of different types of sounds that happened in a home, such as doorbell,
telephone, smoke detector, etc…, consisting basically of:
- A series of transmitters, each located the closest possible to the sound source to be detected.
Each transmitter has a sensitivity setting that helps prevent false alarms. When the transmitter
detects defined sound level, emits a signal indicating that the sound has been detected.
- A receiving device that receives signals from the various issuers and by means of visual
media, different modes of vibration or LED indicating the transmitter is activated and therefore
the sound associated with it.
These marketed solutions are based on the detection of a sound that exceeds this level of
intensity and / or a defined time length. In the national market are examples of this type:
BELLMAN VISIT systems and PUZZLE.
WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES AND SENSORS
In the field of wireless communications the are several protocols that are on the increase, such
as: Bluetooth, Infrared, Zigbee,...
The Bluetooth is widely used in mobile tech and home computing, for its data transmission
rate 1 Mbps versus 250 kbps of Zigbee. Nevertheless presents a number of limitations:
• Increased power consumption (40mA transmitting and 0.2 mA at rest, compared with
consumption of 30mA transmitting and 3uA at rest of the Zigbee).
• A Bluetooth network consists of up to 6 nodes per subnet, compared with 255 of each
ZigBee subnet.
ZigBee is the name given to all wireless communications protocols based on IEEE 802.15.4
networks wireless personal area (WPAN). It is used in applications requiring secure
communications with low data transmission rate and low power consumption. The advantages
of this technology in comparison with others are:
• Low energy consumption
• Type of network
• Integrability
The ZigBee specification was approved in 2004, so it is a very new technology, although its
simple development and its low cost is what accounts for their proliferation, without saying
that uses about 10% of the hardware of a Bluetooth node. Also one of the bands using the 2.4
GHz is free worldwide.
Another advantage is its low cost, since the market price of a ZigBee compliant transceiver is
very economical.
The ZigBee protocols are used in embedded applications with low requirements for data
transmission and power consumption. Its applications include industrial control, built-in
sensors, collecting medical data, perform as a smoke or intrusion detection or home
automation.
The whole network uses a very small amount of energy, so that each individual device can
have autonomy of up to 5 years before needing a refill on your power system. This is because a
ZigBee node (both active and passive) reduces their consumption because it can stay asleep
most of the time (even many days). When required for use, the ZigBee node can wake up in a
tiny time, going back to sleep when no longer is required.
2. METHOD
What follows is the development process of the automatic start detection system. See below a
first prototype of the product:
Picture 1.
In the vast majority of sports competitions is the start referee, the one who fires the starting
gun and in charge of judging anything happened in the beginning of the race. If in the opinion
of the judge, a false start happens, he will be responsible for ordering their repetition. In the
case of athletics, according to the current regulations of the International Athletics Federation
(IAAF) enacted on January 1, 2010, any false start is penalized directly with the disqualification
of the athlete who does it and thus causing major uncertainty for those athletes with sensory
problems.
Picture 2.
The proposed system aims to be able to react in each case, informing the athlete of the exact
start of the race and, if a start is declared false to stop and return to their starting position.
To this end, several alternatives will be analyzed. With the involvement of the coach or
designee, an initial proposal of the system could be the incorporation of a light system to
indicate "ready" and the warning of the starting gun ( see picture 2) . The coach or designee,
using a mobile device may be able to interact with the system and turn the light "ready" on (in
order to improve the athlete's reaction and to avoid false system detections) and, once the
starter’s gun is detected , the system will automatically turn the start indicating light on. In the
event of a false start , in order to inform the athlete about it we will study the use of vibrating
wristbands , which the athlete can carry on and that will be connected to the mobile device of
the coach.
In sprint races, the reaction time in the beginning of the race is a task to work out in many of
the sessions. The athletes without hearing problems work this feature assisted by their
coaches, who tell them by keyword or a shout the moment to start the race. Although the use
of the clap is also widespread, when time measurements are made the voice test is mostly
used, thus the hands are free to activate the timer. However, the inability to use the sound
with athletes with hearing problems makes this task difficult.
The project, using the mobile device, proposes the development of a stopwatch software able
to communicate with the central system, and once it starts, it can send the starting signal (by
light or vibration) to the athlete. This training mode will be interconnected to management
software to record and make statistics on the results obtained. This improvement will allow
having greater control over monitoring of the athlete and a more accurate statistical
improvement.
3. RESULTS
The results of the project comprises the evaluations obtained before the coaching session with
the athlete .
PROJECT’S TECHNOLOGICAL RISKS
Like any technological development this project involves risks that may result in a failure
achieving the goals and as a consequence, the inability to launch the new project to the
market.
The main risks that this technological developments face and proposed actions solve them are
the following:
• Reaction to the firing system. The system reaction time must be of the order of milliseconds.
The time of receipt of the sound wave and the communication to the interfaces is a critical
aspect of this project. In order to overcome this problem in the most accurate way, time tests
are carried out by analyzing the behaviour of all components and pursuing the minimization of
the number of electronic components and the optimization of the embedded code.
• Scope and performance of the wireless technology. Several sensor networks and receivers
located at different distances will be analyzed, in order to research into the most correct
structure. Connectivity will be tested with different protocols by measuring the influence of
the separation and delimiting then the range.
•Performance of the batteries. There will be a comprehensive analysis of energy consumption
of system components to increase the life of the battery / batteries from the product. It will be
developed in way that the device will be in "standby" until the right time of use in the race.
• Acceptance by users. Regarding the utility of the product, the design will be made to be userfriendly. The ISO 9241-210 guidelines will be followed, which specifies four levels of core
activities in the project development:
- Defined the requirements: Interpretation and specification of the context of use.
- Specification of the requirements - user and organization requirements specification .
- Design-generation of designs and prototypes.
- Evaluation - Conduct assessments, based on users, to meet design and requirements needs.
The validation by the sports committees. With the support of the Federation of Adapted Sports
from Gipuzkoa, we will contact with different sport organizations in order to certify the
product so that it can be used on any sporting event in which is required.
MARKET RISK
In order to minimize market risks several actions will be taken into account:
• Extrapolating the results from the lab to a real scenario conducting a pilot test. During
development of the project, tests will be done in sports facilities in order to check the running
of the whole system under real conditions and with real users (see following section).
• For the pilot test, a demo of the automatic starting detection system will be done next to the
software to manage the mobile device and software for training management.
The achievement of the objectives outlined in this project would lead to the participating
companies to be the leader controlling sports events for people with sensory disabilities.
Furthermore, it will allow the diversification of its product portfolio thereby reducing the risk
of companies.
4. DISCUSSION
Our aim was to develop an automatic race start detection system for competition and training
in which athlete with sensorial disabilities take part. Our goal was to make a system with rapid
response time to the firing system, wireless communication, battery operated and user
friendly. In order to analyze if the goals are achieved we test the product in a coaching
session. What follows are the results obtained in the coaching session.
The equipment used to measure the reaction time is the model ReacTime Lynx Systems
Developer. The test used three modules of this product but the functionality of the system is
contained in two of them:
• Module in starting block: it has accelerometers for determining the beginning of the race.
• Judge module: detects the starting gun. It is connected to an external microphone that is
placed as close as possible to the starting gun.
Both modules are connected via an Ethernet cable.
Apart from measuring the reaction time, the equipment enables measuring the force used by
the athlete when starting the race. Finally, we were unable to access this data being collected
only the reaction times.
As for the automatic start detection system, we tested the prototype that consist of a remote
control for the coach with a Ready button and a light device that by different colours shows
the actions of SET and GO.
Picture 3. Prototype
The gun was placed about 20 inches away from the microphone ReacTime module. The light
device was placed in a lane, in front of the athlete, about 2 meters away from starting gun.
Measurements
There were 50 starts analysed. Some of them with red light, others with green light and
another with green light and black background and also with red light and black background.
The device has worked successfully and the results have been very satisfactory. Both the
federation staff as the athlete and the coach who was there, were amazed at the swift
response time to the starting gun. The results have shown very good reaction time of the
athlete with hearing impairment in comparison with old timings.
The first aspect to improve is the colour of the light device case. They suggest us to be black
instead of white which has led them, because the contrast of the LED diode on a black
background is higher and the athlete is able to visualize it better. Therefore, we decide to paint
the cases black for the next prototypes. Another option is to increase the contrast, by using
two points of light instead of a single signal for SET and GO (the contrast from off to on would
be greater than that of green to red). This is an option pending to be tested.
Then we proceed to have a look to the athlete's reaction time since the starter’s gun is fired till
he/she reacts and commences his race. According to the initial data provided about the athlete
in previous competitions, he has an approximate figure of 500 milliseconds of reaction time.
Picture 4. Product testing with an athlete in coaching session
It is said that a reaction time of 150 and 170 milliseconds can be considered very good for an
elite athlete (with good visual and hearing abilities). According to the reaction time to an
auditory stimulus varies between 140ms-160ms. This study was carried out with untrained
persons to receive an acoustic stimulus. However, they are athletes themselves so that the
marks should be better than those discussed.
A reaction time of less than 100 milliseconds is considered a false start.
As mentioned above 50 attempts are made, in which athlete’s response time has been
measured (with two LED color settings ):
•Green SET signal. Red, GO signal.
•Red SET signal. Green GO signal.
Although the number of attempts can be considered insufficient, based on the measurements
obtained, one can assume that the reaction time with a red light signal is less than with a
green one. We can conclude that the athlete has reacted better to the red colour as GO signal
rather than to the green one.
• Best reaction time (RED signal): 193 milliseconds
• Best reaction time (GREEN signal): 217 milliseconds
As one can see the improvement on the initial data of 500 milliseconds is considerable. This
mark is within the range specified to a visual stimulus (180ms-200ms). However tests were not
performed under optimal conditions (he was not wearing his athletic shoes and it was the first
contact with the new version of the prototype). One might think therefore that a process of
familiarization with the device will led to improve the 193ms mark, reaching a value close to or
less than 180ms. Therefore, using this device we can assure the athlete with hearing problems
will be able to compete in equal conditions with an athlete without hearing problems.
The device has reacted perfectly to all the shots fired, after initial calibration. The calibration
and first tests were performed by placing the device to eight lanes away from the shooting
location and the response was correct.
The visualization of the LED diode outdoors has been very satisfactory.
5. CONCLUSION
We have got that athletes with sensorial disabilities can take part in competition or training in
the same conditions as other athletes. This was the aim of the project and we got it.
The paper has shown how automatic start signal detection system improves sensorial impaired
athlete performance in terms of reaction time to the starting signal in coaching sessions. As
mentioned we’ve focused on coaching, but it can be extrapolated to competition field.
The systems seems to be reliable and meets the requirement defined in the specification
section , but there are yet some key aspects to be defined before doing further tests, for
instance:
1. Housing’s IP protection degree. It must have a protection against water and weather
inclemency.
2. The device’s power supply. There is the option of standard alkaline batteries that can be
replaced by the user. Another option is to use a rechargeable lithium battery for example
through a USB port on the PC. This latter option avoids the need to have a lid for the battery
replacement.
3. Exact functionality of the light device and the coaches’ remote control. Number of keys,
display, timer etc..
The system should be complemented with a device that indicates false starts. Some of the
options proposed are: a vibrating bracelet that carries the athlete or a series of red lights
placed on both sides of the track. Another option discussed is an electronic patch attached
anywhere in the body.
The training mode would also be very useful, so that the athlete could simulate starts at
random times and practice starts from the starting block in a real environment.
Measuring the reaction time is another parameter that could be controlled internally by an
accelerometer placed on device. For this purpose the device should be attached to the blocks,
but this is a feature to be analyzed in a future project.
Another possible enhancement would be the placement of a sensor in the finish line which
could time the race, either 100, 200, 400 meters, etc..The stop watcher would begin with the
starting gun and finish when the athlete passes the finish line. This information, along with the
athlete's reaction time and other parameters could be stored on the device to be subsequently
consulted.
6. RECOMMENDATIONS
From the experience that we’ve gained developing this project we can conclude that the
product in order to be accepted by the user must be easy to use, simple, trustworthy and not
disturbing in the use. Also, from the results obtained, we can assure it makes feasible hearing
impaired athletes to compete as equals with other athletes, thus enabling the social
integration of them.
Furthermore, we have gathered some improvements to be made to the product as shown in
the section above to widen its utilities and life.