With special thanks to Frank Biller of NK here is the translation of the German site just posted this morning.
Here you go Frank - one gratuitous, blatant plug for NK "world leaders in rowing electronics and translation of German Rowing Web Sites"
"The Melody of Rowing"
Many imagine romantic pictures when thinking of a rowing novice. A new technology however may teach you different. This new project by the School for Sport Science at the University of Bonn came up with an interesting approach.
A novice is sitting on an ergometer in a shaded room. While moving on the erg, different sound and film samples are being being shown. At the same time, the novice is being filmed as well. Some samples show an elite rower with a melody and some samples show the novice with more ackward sounds. The novice now tries to copy the elite rower, visually and audio-visually by matching sounds and film. The better the novice rows, the better the melody.
According to Project leader Dr. Alfred Effenberg the goal is to find out whether complex movements are better learned with visual or audio-visual information. Sensors are attached to handle, chain, seat and footstretcher. The computer measures the different inputs, converts them into curves which then in real time produce different sounds. It's call scientific sonification, an interpretation of data material. There are four different tones on a scale from humming to squeaking. One sport student describes that it can get pretty annoying. But different details can be heard clearly and the differences in measurements between elite rower and novice are obvious. Yet it helps trying to get the right feel as a novice.
The main goal is to shorten the learning process and - thanks to the sound sequences - give certain movements (rowing stroke, tennis serve or butterfly style in swimming) a better timing structure.
But it is a pilot project that is still far away from any practical implementation.
Frank G. Biller
Rowing Sales Manager
Nielsen-Kellerman Co.
21 Creek Circle
Boothwyn, PA19061
+1-610-447-1555 x216
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