Obviously inspired by the accurate per-blow scoring of games like Tekken and Virtua Fighter, scientists at PARC, Stanford, and Impact Measurement are testing a wearable system that lets martial arts judges decent the force of a hit. By stringing up a series of wireless piezoelectric pressure sensors in the hogu armor that protects the combatants, the system can display the exact force of the blows on the judges’ wireless handsets. Since tae kwon do fighters are judged not just for the accuracy of their kicks but also for the force behind them, the system can be much more fair than trying to determine which ‘Oof!’ was the loudest.
Read [TechnologyReview]
