Intel Curie Chip provides deeper insight into X Games snowboarding competitions
ASPEN – This weekend at X Games Aspen, the Intel Curie chip will make its debut during both the Men’s Slopestyle and America’s Navy Men’s Snowboard Big Air competitions. The chip will be providing real-time data to viewers that will include the speed, location, jump height, rotation and force on landing of the snowboarders in action.
Testing for this new technology began in November. During that time, Intel and ESPN worked together to determine the best positioning for the chips on snowboards, as well as the placement of antennas within a course to receive and transmit data wirelessly from the boards back to those monitoring the data.
The use of the Intel Curie chip during the X Games can benefit the athletes in their training in addition to giving viewers a more in-depth look at the performance of snowboarders on these courses.
“We have three types of graphics that will be integrated into the production using the data from the chip. Those include real-time graphics as snowboarders jump, summary graphics that show each jump individually and comparison graphics that can explain to people the difference between, say, a first-place run and a second-place run,” said Christiaan Cokas, manager, Visual Technology, ESPN.
The X Games and Intel make a perfect fit in terms of testing out a new technology for use in the competitions. The X Games are an ESPN-owned event, which gives the company more flexibility and opportunity to try new things when it comes to working on a project like this.
Paul DiPietro, coordinating director, ESPN Remote Production Operations
Paul DiPietro, coordinating director, ESPN Remote Production Operations, finds that the collaboration with Intel and the X Games is a perfect fit for many reasons.
“The X Games have always been a perfect location to test any new technology,” he said. “I’m working directly with my fellow colleagues on this, and the sky is the limit when it comes to experimentation. We’re all here with the same goal – we all want the best product, and I think that will help make the use of the Intel Curie a success at the X Games.”
To watch the Intel Curie chip in action at the X Games this weekend, tune in to the America’s Navy Men’s Big Air Snowboarding competition tonight at 10:15 p.m. ET (ESPN) and the Men’s Slopestyle Snowboarding competition Saturday at 2 p.m. ET (ABC).
The video below provides more details about how the information will be delivered to athletes and fans.
Video produced by Samantha Baron
