For those of you who think knowing the miles per hour of each pitch is the best part of a baseball game -- and sometimes, it really is -- Clemson University civil engineering professor Scott Schiff and his students have created a system that'll measure the force of the dunks and display it on the overhead screens instantly. In one game against East Carolina, Clemson forward Raymond Sykes managed a dunk that measured 30 G's -- which we're told is mighty impressive, but really, we don't have much comparison at this point. The team hopes its system gets adopted for other venues, and for sake of having more excuses to stare at the giant TVs and not the court, we hope so, too. Hit up the read link to see video of the system in action.
[Via
PhysOrg]
posted Feb 24th 2009 3:32PM
More importantly, do they include heat sensors in place to determine to what degree he may be on fire? Or do we still need to look to the announcer for that?
I Gs exceeds 50 the sensor should send an electric shock through the fibreglass for that shattering effect!
@samboini
i concur
I also believe that it should trigger pyrotechnics and light the net on fire if the intensity exceeds a certain level and angle.
(Whoa.. children cover your ears!!!!)
I need one of these to install in my mattress.
This way the woman can have a head -up display on the bed headboard showing of my trusting power....
How exactly does one measure trust?
"How exactly does one measure trust?"...
With "hands on" experiments and/or a "focus group" :P
@Samboni, at 40gs the glass will break anyways.
I already have a similar system for cookies and my favorite milk glass. It measures in M's though.
This guy is obviously working on behalf of the plexiglass backboard industry.
it's a shame to see brainpower wasted on a sport as universally shitty as basketball.
fucking thugs.
What????
Yea, and hockey is more civil...
F-in cavemen
please take your pitiful, inept and un-apt attempt at social commentary to the Fox News chat room. Enjoy the other trolls.
I want universities to start developing systems to measure the intensity of me slamming out the queen's gambit or the caro kann defense!
"a sport as universally shitty as basketball"???
If you've got nothing better to do than complain about what someone else is doin with their life and talk shit about a sport then you need a fuckin life yourself
"In one match against East Carolina . . ."
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess you're not much of a sports fan? Did anyone make a home run in that match? ;-)
Game my friend, game . . .
How about a little editing of the entries before they go up? They forgot "is" in the first sentence "...miles per hour of each pitch "is" the best part of a baseball game,,,," Then later say, "...In one match against East Carolina...." One match?!?! Is this tennis? Water polo? This is basketball. Its a basketball game.... Sorry to be picky but people can like both sports and technology and read Engadget and expect to have what they are reading make sense.
Cannot any sporting events where participants are matched against each other be referred to as a match? In American English this is not the norm, but it's not strictly an American site, no?
Personally, I think I'd prefer lbs/square inch.
They could adapt it to the mascot of each team - OKC Thunder could have "F-Force Dunks", the Pistons could use "torque", the Grizzlies "Bite Force", the Wizards could have "spell power" (extra fun on 12-sided die night)...such/so forth.
Or they change it nightly to taunt opponents.
I'm sure the Duke kids could come up with some fun stuff. Actually, I imagine they're too proud to use a conference foe's tech.
enohPi...who the hell said hockey was any better? they're both the worst of all professional sports.
Your mama said it... at a basketball game!
Woohoo! Clemson class of 2012 right here!
They have the internets there now?
"...dunk that measured 30 G's -- which we're told is mighty impressive, but really, we don't have much comparison at this point."
According to the article at the "Read" link, it says that...
“That’s awesome when you consider an earthquake’s ground motion produces accelerations around point five (0.50) and one (1) g.”
i generate more then 1G of force when i look at women suggestively.
Awesome!! Glad to see my school making it on Engadget!! Class of 2012!!
What about the force? They measure G's, but what force do they dunk at? Wouldn't that be a more significant statistic? (you need a mass for your F=m*a equation).
I think the "G" statistic will prove insignificant in a real dunk situation. It might be fun and novelty, but scientifically useless.
I was wondering about that myself. I am thinking maybe they misspoke when they said accelerometers were used. I would think strain gauges would be more appropriate to measure the force. They would most likely also be more accurate, and use more civil engineering knowledge than just a simple accelerometer.
ITS OVER 9000!!!!
I LOL'ed
Trebeck, the question is, "Vegeeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?"
enohPi - won't the fact that the only thing you ever bang is a blowup skew the numbers a bit?
Slam dunk over 50 points will give you a multiball bonus
Gravity? Yes, I'm pretty sure it's still "on."
well clemson sure knows where the world's priorities are
BOOM Shakka-Lakka!
Who cares about thirty. This one goes to eleven!
WTF is with the fan flashing at 1:06 in the video .... LOL!!!
This is lame. It really doesn't matter whether the ball goes through the hoop with more force. For for the guy that dissed hockey. Go fuck yourself.
Are basketball's ratings THAT low?
the real question is why the hell is a CIVIL ENGINEERING professor doing research on this? i would understand mechanical
Why is it so hard to believe that civil engineers do stuff other than build structures for buildings?
Civil engineering and mechanical engineering share so many of the same courses.
Ohhhhh I get it! Ballin is a adjective meaning awesome or wonderful, if you add a g on to it you get the word balling, which relates to basketball.
they should invent a device that measures the egomaniac levels of blowhard basketball players.
My suggestion, set the maximum level pretty high.
One must say AARGH Matey, go! Down East Carolina Pirates!
If a dunk is, er , performed at say 40 G's, could it be rigged so that the announcer from NBA JAM says "BOOOMSHAKALAKA!!!" over the arena PA? Just curious.
Did anyone watch the video? From the looks of the UI, it seems like LabVIEW was used to build the program. Can anyone confirm?
Impressive.
iEmilie, Your correct, that is a LabVIEW VI.