Palm Pilot as Sports Data Logger

Student: Scott Garner

Supervisor: Dr. Peter Sutton

Category: Computer Systems Engineering Thesis Project

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are powerful and compact tools today. By coupling a PDA with radio frequency (RF) capabilities it is possible to create a portable and powerful data-logger, ideally suited to sports data capture and analysis. The system features low cost, flexibility, and real time graphical display of captured data whilst overcoming mobility limitations imposed by laptop and personal computer based systems. Performance analysis in sport now plays an integral role, which can be met by the flexibility and mobility offered by this project.

This thesis details the development of such a system based on the Palm M100 PDA, using 868 – 870 MHz RF transmission between the sensor unit and the PDA. Data acquisition and transmission is achieved using a Texas Instruments single chip RF transceiver coupled to a PIC microcontroller. The RF signal is modulated using 10.7MHz FSK methodology. Specific application to rowing is demonstrated, capturing data from sensors mounted on a rowing boat and displayed on the PDA using the method outlined above. Input data includes boat velocity from an impellor, stroke rate, blade force and oar angle relative to the boat. Analogue to digital conversion is handled by the microcontroller.

The Palm data-logger is only limited by the storage space, and the transmission distance of the device. The flexibility of the software allows configuration from a host of sensors for adaptation to many sports.

Poster Presentation (PDF)

Thesis Document (PDF)