Auto racing places enormous stresses on cars. Because of this, professional race crews have adopted telemetry systems that can monitor a wide range of parameters to help predict when a car may be on the verge of a breakdown. A single race car may integrate 80 or more sensors that measure and transmit data including oil pressure, RPM, air and water temperatures, fuel level, tire pressure and g-force. But what if the driver is on the brink of failure?
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We're giving away 1,000 free Raspberry Pi 3s throughout November to power all of your Raspberry Pi projects, including the new Google AIY Voice Kit. Learn more about the Google AIY Voice Kit here. For more info on the RP3, check out this Raspberry Pi 3 Overview and learn more about other Raspberry Pi products.
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The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
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The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is the latest single-board computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. In this version, they’ve upgraded to a 1.2Ghz 64-bit quad-core ARM processor and added 802.11n Wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.1 and Bluetooth Low Energy.
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Like the previous version (the Pi 2) it has 1 GB of RAM, 4 USB ports, and full HDMI support. The Raspberry Pi 3 also has the same form factor as the Pi 2 (and Pi 1 Model B+).
The Raspberry Pi runs Raspbian and/or NOOBS (both Linux-based operating systems) which boot from the removable SD card. A host of third-party operating systems are also supported, including Ubuntu Mate, Windows 10 IoT Core, and OSMC.
The Raspberry Pi 3 is a credit-card sized computer capable of doing just about anything a desktop PC does. From web surfing and word processing, to playing Minecraft or acting as a media player, the Raspberry Pi’s capabilities are extensive. With plenty of graphics processing power, the Raspberry Pi 3 is capable of streaming BluRay-quality video. If you’re looking to incorporate the Pi into your next embedded design, the 0.1” spaced 40-pin GPIO header gives you access to 27 GPIO, UART, I2C, SPI as well as both 3.3V and 5V power sources.
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Auto racing also places enormous stresses on drivers, with a Formula 1 racer experiencing G-forces as high as 4.5, a heart rate of 180 beats per minute, and a 50 percent increase in blood pressure. This kind of punishment takes a toll on the human body, increasing the possibility that drivers may suffer a physical or mental breakdown that can result in a devastating accident.
One way to address this problem is to employ wearable electronics that can remotely monitor and report the health conditions and performance of the individual drivers. The burgeoning area of telemedicine now is using wireless networks and sensors to track a number of vital signs, ranging from heart rate, to respiration, to body temperature.
However, for the tight confines and high performance conditions of the race car cockpit, what’s needed is a more integrated solution that provides real-time monitoring of a range of physical conditions. A solution to this challenge is the smart shirt, a technology offered by McLaren Applied Technologies, a division of McLaren Racing Ltd., a racecar team and maker of high-performance automobiles. McLaren’s smart shirt combines a number of different health sensors into a single garment.
The smart shirt gathers information including heartbeats per minute, blood oxygen level, temperature and breathing. The information is transmitted in a secure, encrypted format to any mobile device, where it is presented in a dashboard format. The auto racing crew can monitor this data the same way they would watch car performance and make a determination if the driver has exceeded his or her physical limitations. The sensors are incorporated into the material of the shirt. For example, the rate of breathing is measured by checking the motion of the chest.
Smart shirt technology is also being applied to other sports, not only to check for potential health issues, but also to monitor performance. At the 2014 U.S. Open tennis tournament, the ball boys where equipped with smart shirts made by the fashion designer Ralph Lauren Corp. and a bio-sensing clothing company called OMsignal. Sensors knitted into the shirt tracked the ball boys’ activity, breathing and cardiac rate. The data is collected in module that is attached to a band on the shirt. The module, called an OM Smart Box, contains that Bluetooth transmitter, an accelerometer and a gyroscope. These motion sensors track the direction and speed of the ball boys.
The involvement of mainstream designers like Ralph Lauren signals that smart shirt technology is moving beyond the confines of professional sports. OMsignal already is offering its OM Smart Kit for sale on its site. The kit includes the shirt itself, a Smart Box and a smart phone app for monitoring athletic performance in real time.