The Mountain West Conference used ShotTracker during its tournament championship this year. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019 – A roundup of some of the key sports technology stories you need to know, including SportTechie’s own content and stories from around the web.
- The NCAA will allow the Mountain West conference to use ShotTracker data during all regular season basketball games this season. This is the first time that the NCAA has granted a waiver to use on-bench technology during regular season games. Every men’s and women’s team in the conference will wear ShotTracker player sensors and play with ShotTracker sensor-embedded basketballs. The NCAA will ask all Mountain West teams to submit data as part of a study that will evaluate the long-term viability of such in-game technology. ShotTracker originally signed a five-year deal with the Mountain West in May.
- After wrapping up a $7.5 million seed round, health tech startup FIGUR8 has announced the launch of its digital health platform. The company uses 3D motion sensors applied to multiple body locations to capture precise muscle activity and joint movement. FIGUR8 was developed in collaboration between the Massachusetts General Hospital Sports Science Lab and the MIT Media Lab. Investment is being led by P5 Health Ventures with participation from the E14 Fund. “FIGUR8 is completely unique in its ability to aid clinicians in quantifying mobility health markers captured during any activity,” said FIGUR8 CEO, Dr. Nan-Wei Gong, in a press release. “These assessments highlight the weaknesses and anomalies of body segments, which could be a symptom of an injury, disease, or simply a target for performance optimization.”
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- NFL players will now be allowed to wear tinted helmet visors after the league signed a four-year deal with Oakley. The NFL originally banned the use of tinted visors in 1998 over concerns that they were too difficult to remove from a player’s helmet in the case of on-field head or neck injuries. Players can now wear Oakley Prizm Clear shields, which have a pinkish hue meant to boost visual acuity and spatial awareness. “Prizm is a light-management technology. We can filter light in a way to leverage your natural visual acuity,” Wayne Chumbley, head of Oakley’s Vision Performance Lab, explained to Sports Illustrated.
- The U.S. Open has launched U.S. Open Now, a live streaming channel meant to showcase off-court stories and the fan experience of attending the tournament. The show is streaming for free across USOpen.org, the U.S. Open App, ESPN3 and via various international broadcast partners around the world. Fans are also able to watch the first hour of U.S. Open Now programming through the U.S. Open’s official Twitter channel each day of the tournament.
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