I'm not a huge Nascar fan, but I enjoy watching some of the bigger events ... and this year's Daytona 500 did not dissapoint. The end had some of the most amazing driving I've seen in a while...if only the caution hadn't come out so close to the end. I felt bad for Tony...poor guy lead almost every single lap then after that last restart he got eaten. I'm a Gordon fan, well not a "real" fan by Nascar standards, but he's the guy I pull for whenever I watch so I was pleased to see him pull off the win. Network World had 2 Nascar Technology articles last year ... some really amazing stuff if you hadn't seen it before...
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/082304widernetnascar.html - some kewl snippets:
..."Calculating and displaying real-time information such as speed takes more than a well-aimed radar gun and some quick hands on a keyboard. "It's the most complicated graphic to produce in television," says Bob Hess, track engineer for Sportvision, the Chicago technology company NASCAR contracts with to produce the real-time data and associated graphics for the television broadcasts."
..."Each car is equipped with a GPS receiver embedded in the roof and a Data Acquisition and Positioning System (DAPS) black box mounted near the rear window that collects braking, throttle position and rpm information. Using a 900-MHz transmitter, the DAPS and GPS information is radioed to one of the three or four base stations positioned around the track. ... The telemetry data and GPS data is collected five times per second. To get from the base station to the truck, Sportvision taps into fiber cable connecting the camera positions around the track or a DSL modem connected to Category 3 cabling.
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/082304widernetside.html - some kewl snippets:
..."To ensure [Nextel] service at each race venue, Nextel brings in NasCOW, a tractor-trailer with a retractable antenna that provides the equivalent of six average cell sites."
..."NASCAR is now testing Bluetooth technology that would replace the ¾-inch data cable currently used to connect the driver to the car."
..."Wireless technology is also being investigated for delivering video feeds to the fans sitting in the stands."
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