Sense of speed

Top sprinters from the UK hoping to compete in the 2012 Olympics are to get a head start thanks to a project that will use wireless sensing technology to analyse their performance.

The project brings together heavyweights such as

and

with

and

as part of a four-year initiative to look at how sensing can be used to improve the performance of the nation's elite sprinters.

Dr Stephen Hailes, from UCL's Computer Science department is leading the project and hopes that using accurate sensing technologies could both help improve a sprinter's performance and provide accurate feedback for coaches.

'We need sensing systems that fit the purpose for which we need them,' he said. 'There are already systems that use accelerometers and gyroscopes which are very good indeed but the trouble is that they are far too big. We want something that an athlete can wear without being aware of it. Current systems are too large and not well interfaced for wireless networking.'