Iverson, Watch Out!

It looks like the "Intelligent Knee Sleeve" from several years ago morphed into an elbow sleeve that basketball and "netball" players can use to help develop their shots. The research behind this started at the Austrailian S&T arm known as CSIRO; we've talked about them before.

This sleeve provides audible feedback to the user as it undergoes mechanical stresses -- in other words, each movement provides a sound. For sports that require a precise and repeatable motion (jumpshot anyone?) the sleeve can be used as a training aid. Earlier applications of the technology were used on knee sleeves to assist users on "landing" after jumping -- probably a little more of a stretch in my eyes. If anyone remembers the presentations from CSRIRO back in 2002-2003, they compiled a bunch of gruesome sports injuries which their research would eventually prevent -- I never saw so many people in a room squirm in their seats in unisom.

We'd love to hear from anyone who has actually used these sleeves as training aids -- it is an interesting concept, but how well does it work?

Inteltex Consortium

So it looks like there is yet another consortium for Smart Textiles in Europe -- not sure what affiliation this has with some of its predecessors, but anyway it is called "Inteltex."



I suggest checking out the website -- let me know if you can find anything in the way of results or at least project descriptions, etc. There appear to be a number of partner companies and universities involved in the consortium that appears to be broken out by nano/materials specialists, fiber/yarn manufacturers, and textile companies.



However, one of the most interesting things I found on the website was the consortium's video. At first the video looks to be nothing more than a powerpoint slide-show, but toward the end they show some pretty good clips of processing capabilities: fiber extrusion, fiber webs, needle-punch nonwovens, and electrospinning.

Please let us know if you have any further info on the projects being pursued under this consortium...