Buzzing Snowboard Guides Snowboarders Down Treacherous Slopes

Do you like to go skiing or snowboarding? If you have answered “Yes!” for the latter activity and are still figuring your way around on a snowboard, then you would do well to pay attention to the future thanks to this technologically enhanced snowboard that will vibrate to help guide you down those treacherous slopes. A particular researcher is looking into developing devices that can be taped onto people’s limbs, where it will teach them how to shift one’s weight as the snowboard goes downhill.

Daniel Spelmezan, a researcher over at the Université Paris Sud, has managed to run a preliminary test of his devices on 10 new snowboarders. During a run, Spelmezan’s devices buzzed different parts of the wearer’s body in order to point out to the wearer that he or she should bend that particular limb or shift his/her weight there. The buzzers will “talk” to the snowboard in order to receive information on just which way the snowboarder is facing. Where else do you think that Spelmezan’s invention might come in handy?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: invention