1. Ryan Gardiner Advisor: Kent Chamberlin
ECE 791 Project Proposal
Ryan Gardiner
Advisor: Kent Chamberlin

2. Technology in Sports
Over the course of the last few years, there have been tremendous strides in the use of technology in professional sports
Prominent examples include the use of replay in MLB, and ball-tracking technology professional tennis
These innovations and others allow umpires/referees/judges to make more accurate calls and thus a more fair game

3. Tennis Replay System (Hawk-Eye)

4. MLB Replay System

5. Pros vs. Amateurs: The Problem
Unfortunately, these technology innovations have only occurred at the professional level
There are no such technologies available at the amateur level, mainly due to lack of a market and overall cost
A cheap, effective technology system could vastly increase the quality of the game at the amateur level

6. Player-Tracking Grid
In the realm of sports technology, ice hockey has had limited innovation in comparison to other major sports
This is especially true at the amateur level, where teams are lucky to even acquire ice time
Only at the professional level is there any sort of data tracking technology

7. Possible Hockey Applications

8. Two-Fold Applications
Officiating
Have a reliable technology to fall back on in the case of a close-call/have instantaneous automated calls (offsides, ect.)
Coaching
Valuable to coaches to have real-time player tracking and replays to show players

9. The Grid

10. Proposed Sensor Location

11. Proposed Sensor Location
Sensor located in the
middle of the puck

12. Tentative Timeline
Create small grid of transmitters ( <4x4 ) for initial testing
Perform tests with single transmitter on a string simulating a skate, eventually expanding the grid to a larger and larger size
Once an adequate size has been tested work on material to cover grid and not be affected by the ice required
Test cover material in water, and then eventually ice with similar tests as before

13. Courses Involved ECE649 ECE715 ECE603 Embedded Design Strategies
Transistor Sizing/Spacing
ECE603
Electric/Magnetic Field Considerations

14. Challenges How would sensor impact physics of the ball/puck
Would inserting a chip into a puck cause drastic changes to the game?
Implementing/Testing grid with ice
Once grid is frozen, cannot retrieve or access grid for some amount of time
Can only perform tests for a limited time once frozen unless performed at special location
Accuracy Testing
Determining how many sensors are required to produce a grid that will yield acceptable results
Determining the tradeoff of Cost(# of sensors) vs. accuracy

15. Cost
Ice Hockey, by default, is a very expensive sport due to the equipment required and the cost of buying ice time
There is little room for most families to further burden themselves with outside costs
Cost is the largest barrier to amateur athletics benefiting from sensor technology

16. Other Possible Applications
Baseball-tracking to immediately confirm/reverse home runs and foul balls
Football-tracking for offsides, out of bounds, ball spotting
Soccer, Lacrosse tracking for out of bounds calls

17. Technology
“TXC100 is a rugged, single chip ASK/FSK Transmitter IC in the MHz frequency range. This chip is highly integrated and has all required RF functions including a complete PLL circuit and power amplifier, thus requiring very few external components. The TXC100 is feature rich and is very small in size with high output power and low current consumption…” (rfm.com)

18. TXC100 Transmitter Small Size (3x3 mm, 16 pin output)
Low Voltage and Current Consumption
(<3.6 V , <7mA)
Operates from -40º to 125º C

19. TRC03 Transceiver
Ideal for low cost, high volume, two-way short-range wireless applications
200 kb/s Data Rate
Low voltage/current consumption
(< 3.6V , 3.3mA)

20. Conclusions
Player-Tracking grid for hockey rinks would be beneficial to both coaches and referees who do not have access to such technology
Such a grid has numerous possible applications in the realm of amateur sports
The cost of the product must be low in order to be taken advantage of by the largest amount of people
There will be several design challenges along the way, including testing the grid with ice and not affecting the physics of the puck

21. Questions?