When I was a teenager — a long time ago — the chess bug bit me. I had the sort of disposable time that only a teenager can have and used it to play chess for hours each day. An extension of my obsession was playing correspondence chess. I thought I was very sophisticated and swish because I was playing chess with someone in another country.
Every eight weeks or so, a postcard would arrive from England with one line — the new move — written on it. I would then recreate the game from scratch and add in the new move. After that, I would think, walk to the post office, buy my stamp, buy my postcard, fill in my move, and mail that sucker straight back again. I was not a sophisticated chess-playing teenager to be trifled with. I never did actually meet Mike-from-England, nor did we ever finish the game, but he did wish me merry Christmas one year and sent me a photo of his Volvo.
All of this seems ludicrous today. If I wanted to play now, there are any number of software packages that I would have no hope at all of beating and if I wanted to play with a real live human, I could simply log into one of several chess servers available and play in a graphical environment. It would be possible to sit at the North Pole and play chess against someone at the South Pole, and it would seem as though we were in the same room.
For those of us fortunate enough to have access to First World facilities, the internet has taken over our lives. It became an indispensable work tool a long time ago, but it is also burrowing into our recreational and sporting lives. If you don’t believe that the internet has such scope, look at which toilets are occupied at MIT while you read this — www.bathroom.mit.edu. Some MIT students who were too lazy to walk and wait wrote this now-famous bathroom application. Now, when anyone in the building feels the urge to go, they click on a saved bookmark to see whether their favourite contemplation spot is available.
If it’s so easy to use the internet for recreational purposes, there is ample scope for sporting use, so with “sports meets the internet” in mind, I started digging through as much documentation as I could. I was fascinated to see just how many sports have embraced the internet, and it’s not just competitive people. Across the ability spectrum, in every sport, the internet is making its presence felt. Listing every sport is a futile exercise, but highlighting the more interesting and established ones illustrates how thorough the meeting of sports and the internet is.
Surprisingly enough, divers use the internet extensively. There are many websites that provide detailed information on visibility, tides, currents, expected sightings and exact coordinates for popular dive sites. Using a web browser, in combination with a GPS, gives a diver pinpoint accuracy. An added bonus to uploading GPS data and other dive data to the internet, is the ability to point out, and preserve, ecologically sensitive areas. Using advanced technology for our enjoyment, while at the same time keeping our human footprint to a minimum, is of benefit to everyone — and the planet is most grateful.
It is said that sailing ocean yachts is the equivalent of standing fully clothed under a cold shower and tearing up bundles of thousand dollar notes. If that’s true, then at least for the humble weekend sailor there is a cheaper alternative — virtual sailing. This is made possible by surveying an established sailing course, capturing wind, current, GPS data, satellite images, video footage and then creating a virtual image of it. These images are stored on sailing servers. With more courses being captured and mapped, the number of virtual sailing alternatives is increasing. To sail on the course, sailors need to log into the server and either sail alone or rendezvous with other sailors to compete in match races.
A similar situation exists in motor racing. Every Friday night — United States time — motor racing fans get the opportunity to log into racing servers and race each other. There is a protocol that needs to be followed whereby the drivers first congregate in a chat room before being called to the start; the person who set up the race is accepted as the race starter. Once the race is over, the drivers go back to the chat room for a discussion. There is also an opportunity to book the course at non-race times in order to practice.
Whether it is sailing courses, golf courses or motor racing circuits, the underlying principle is the same. By using various capturing techniques, an accurate virtual image is created from a physical source, after which it is stored on a server. These images can then be accessed and manipulated by individuals using specific software. The software can be used individually or in a participatory manner to simulate competition.
All of these things require virtual wind, virtual waves or virtual engines. The driving force is the brain manipulating the software. Human horsepower, however, drives some sporting applications. Rowing oars, for example, are hooked up to the Internet, and measurements of actual human generated wattage and speed are transferred to the server. The server receives this telemetry from multiple sources, combines that data, calculates the relative speeds and then sends the information back where it is displayed in a graphical manner. This telemetry transfer can happen up to 20 times a second — depending on how sophisticated the software is — giving a very smooth representation of a race’s progress.
Sadly, there is always a price to pay for using technology, and we in South Africa pay a heavy one. The virtual worlds that exist on all these sports servers and the data transmission into and out of these servers require copious amounts of good, clean bandwidth. Unfortunately, we are not that blessed. While First World countries are drinking down their bandwidth in thirsty gulps, we are sucking ours in through a straw. It is the one and only time I have ever wished to live in the US.
Cyclists show us the way
The cycling fraternity can do everything that the rowing fraternity can do, except they can do it much better. Cycling technology operates at the bleeding edge; if it’s possible, they are already doing it better than anyone else; if it’s impossible, they will invent something to make it possible. Like other sports, they can log on to a race server, they can cycle on a virtual course, they can cycle in a virtual peleton; that’s all simple, established technology. But cycling is also an extremely tactical sport and cycling teams are using the internet to plot tactics in an actual race.
Power cranks have been around for a few years and are universally used on the pro circuit. The cranks are where a cyclist generates power and is where wattage and revolutions are measured. These numbers — as well as heart rate — are available to the cyclist on a digital screen attached to the handlebars. In addition to the information being available to the cyclist, it is also available to the manager. A small modem is attached under the cyclist’s seat and the telemetry is transmitted from the crank to the modem over the internet and on to the manager’s laptop. Tactics are then decided based on the current status of the race, the course profile and the measurements coming from the cyclist.
The closest we mortals get to the pro peleton, however, is gazing at it in envy on television. But because cycling has such advanced technology, the average cyclist can still ride some of the major tours by just visiting the correct gym or buying the necessary equipment.
RacerMate has developed astonishingly good wind trainers by combining GPS tracks with visual data. If, for example, you wanted to ride the Tour de France route, you need only find a wind trainer on which it is installed. Capturing the virtual course initially requires that someone rides it using a GPS while recording with a video camera (attached to the helmet). It is not necessary to ride it with a bike, but visually it gives a better cycling perspective. The GPS tracks, which include changes in elevation, are then superimposed on the video footage and the information is converted to a file type compatible with wind trainers.
Our South African cyclists have already done this in preparation for Beijing. They have mapped the Olympic route and are training on it here at home. — Bruce Clark