{"id":502,"date":"2022-08-25T09:35:11","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T08:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/?p=502"},"modified":"2023-06-30T09:55:39","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T08:55:39","slug":"502","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/2022\/08\/25\/502\/","title":{"rendered":"SwimAR: testing the benefits of GPS technology for swimmers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imaginationfactory.co.uk\/swimar\/\">SwimAR<\/a> is a start-up sports technology business that has been spun out from The Imagination Factory design studio. The business was developing a heads-up display for swimmers to provide real-time performance data in their field of view. One of the target markets for SwimAR is open-water swimmers because it has the capability of providing visual wayfinding guidance.<\/p>\n<h3>The Challenge<\/h3>\n<p>SwimAR had carried out subjective research with swimmers that suggested they struggle to swim accurately from buoy to buoy and that this can be a barrier to entry to the sport for newcomers. They wanted to understand what the baseline is for open-water swimmer accuracy and approached the Sports and Exercise Sciences department of the University of Kent to help with this.<\/p>\n<h3>The Approach<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/sport-sciences\/people\/2190\/mauger-lex\">Dr. Lex Mauger<\/a> from the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences organised and ran a study involving 17 participants that were GPS tracked whilst swimming pre-defined routes in a lake. The study showed that the swimmers completed on average an extra 9% of distance than required by the actual route.<\/p>\n<h3>The Result<\/h3>\n<p>This evidence helped SwimAR to quantify the kind of benefit that the device could bring to open-water swimmers. A prototype was developed and the study repeated to provide evidence for this tangible benefit. This project was funded through the Industrial Strategy uplift.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/sport-sciences\/research\">The School of Sport and Exercise Sciences <\/a>produces rigorous and applicable research that develops employable graduates and impacts the training and performance of coaches and athletes. The School has expertise in:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"bullet-list\">\n<li><strong>exercise physiology<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>biomechanics<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>nutrition<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>injury<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>rehabilitation<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>psychology.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/knowledge-exchange-innovation\/contact#tab--business-relationships\">Contact our business and innovation gateway team<\/a>\u00a0to discuss how your business can access the School\u2019s expertise.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(2019)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SwimAR is a start-up sports technology business that has been spun out from The Imagination Factory design studio. The business was developing a heads-up display &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/2022\/08\/25\/502\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74795,"featured_media":504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[256065,275480],"tags":[184923,281564,278374,278385,223259],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}