 Poster: A snowHead
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This looks to be only marginally more advanced than the 'vapourware' stage at the moment, but Skido looks like it might have (slightly geeky) potential...
Personally, I rather like the idea of being able to plot a track of my movements over the week on a piste map, look at altitude profiles, distances covered each day and so forth. Not so sure about the need for my phone to announce which lift I've just skied up to though given that most have big signs on somewhere!
OK, you could probably do something similar with a GPS receiver and some mapping software, but the integration could be key here, assuming you can get over the 150 quid cost of a receiver and the software, let alone actually using a windows smartphone... 
And no, I don't work for them! If they want to give me a unit to test in St Anton after Easter I'd be happy to give it a whirl...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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starnberg, This is slightly surreal!!! An absolutely amazing piece of kit for the interested parties;
Skido continually monitors your movement calculating the following telemetry data for your as you ski:
Current Min. Avg. Max.
Speed X X X X
Distance X n/a n/a n/a
Altitude X X X X
Pace X X X X
Gradient X X X X
Calories X X X X
The lap functions allows you to easily record the information above over a specific time period allowing you to see your performance on a particular piste or timed interval.
One exception, I noticed, missing from the 'Features' section is that there is no 'Monitoring or Calculation' of wipeouts!! 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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maybe, but thinking about it a little more I'm a tad sceptical about it's claimed abilities... Calories is likely to be an absolutely random number unless it knows an awful lot of data about you, your fitness, your heartrate or some other method of figuring out how much work you're doing.
Also, unless I'm way behind on my GPS knowledge (which is entirely possible, it's nearly 8 years since I last did any survey work at uni) on the fly GPS co-ordinates aren't great for altitude measurement. While you don't need a huge degree of accuracy for this, I'd have thought the fairly rapid changes of elevation would be compounding any inaccuracies in the altitude data, leading to wildy inaacurate estimates of gradient et al.
Now a Lat./Long. co-ordinate later matched to a topographical map could be interesting, if a little data intensive!
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Thu 17-03-05 16:08; edited 1 time in total
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Suunto do a couple of wrist mounted computers for skiers which link to PC's and provide much of the same data but use barometric pressure to reccord height changes, they don't have GPS though, ideally I guess you need a combination of the 2 GPS to record your location and barometric to record your rate of descent
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Not sure if this has been posted before but http://www.frwd.com/static.php?sivu=2 looks an interesting unit.
Has anyone found detailed digital topographic maps for the alps to use with GPS.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| starnberg wrote: |
Also, unless I'm way behind on my GPS knowledge (which is entirely possible, it's nearly 8 years since I last did any survey work at uni) on the fly GPS co-ordinates aren't great for altitude measurement. While you don't need a huge degree of accuracy for this, I'd have thought the fairly rapid changes of elevation would be compounding any inaccuracies in the altitude data, leading to wildy inaacurate estimates of gradient et al.
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It's still a problem, even though Selective Availability has been turned off. I would have thought that combining GPS measurement with calibrated altimeter readings would help a little, but I think you're right to questiuon the accuracy of any small but rapid elevation change as measured by GPS.
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rob@rar.org.uk, I guess a little post processing of the data could be used to look at trends and remove anomalies ( at this point the discussion about changes in elevation / slope angle and correctly measuring speed normally arises  ). Seem to remember a long thread on Epic about the subject.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| mesk1 wrote: |
| rob@rar.org.uk, I guess a little post processing of the data could be used to look at trends and remove anomalies |
It could, but I think at that point you have officially stopped being on a skiing holiday and have become a data assistant on a field trip! I know which I prefer...
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| rob@rar.org.uk wrote: |
| starnberg wrote: |
Also, unless I'm way behind on my GPS knowledge (which is entirely possible, it's nearly 8 years since I last did any survey work at uni) on the fly GPS co-ordinates aren't great for altitude measurement. While you don't need a huge degree of accuracy for this, I'd have thought the fairly rapid changes of elevation would be compounding any inaccuracies in the altitude data, leading to wildy inaacurate estimates of gradient et al.
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It's still a problem, even though Selective Availability has been turned off. I would have thought that combining GPS measurement with calibrated altimeter readings would help a little, but I think you're right to questiuon the accuracy of any small but rapid elevation change as measured by GPS. |
Why not, surely it's what tomahawk missi....oh, yeah, good point.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Theoretically it's possible to produce something relatively cheaply now, combine an electronic compass for direction changes, a barometer for altitude changes, a clock for timing, GPS for intermitent position checking and a data recorder that does samples once every few seconds, and you get a reasonably useful tool, which in itself could be made quite cheaply, link that with a PC that can put the data onto a map of the resort and there you go, what will be expensive is getting that data for each resort, thoretically you need 3D mapping data for the resort combined with the GPS grid plus adding ski lifts and pistes to the map, it will be very very very expensive !
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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D G Orf, The concept seems to have been tried at a few resorts over the last couple of years. http://www.slopetracker.com/location_cost.html. It looks quite easy to implement using a standard GPS once you've gone through the hassle of digitizing maps for the area. I wanted to give it a try this year but didn't have the time to learn about making maps for GPS.
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mesk1, it's the digitising of maps that costs a fortune, the conventional way of doing it is to take 3D data from your countries national mapping system and combine it with sattelite or overhead photographs, unfortunately overheads are usually done in the summer which is not much good for skiers, adding GPS to a 3D map should be fairly easy, adding the lift positions would also be fairly simple, what costs is the 3D data for commercial purposes, each map might cost £1000's then add on all the other bits and you could be looking at several £1000 per ski area
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You know it makes sense.
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so has anyone tried this skido software?
I assume I'd have to have my GPS device hanging outside my jacket for it to work, whilst I was skiing?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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gregh, I would think the gps would happily sit inside your jacket or rucksack, providing it has a reasonable 'view' of the horizon. Have you tried any of the other shareware or freeware software for this sort of application ?
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Poster: A snowHead
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gregh, no the GPS signal should easily pass through your jacket and probably through you as well, don't try to use it for caving though, rock or worse reinforced concrete can block the signal depending on its thickness and the amount of metal present
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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D G Orf, As does the Chunnel 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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cool! I have a GPS "mouse" I use in car, and a pocket PC, so assuming there is some snow left on 16th april in Courcheval I'll try this out!
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FAQ
might have to save up for a while first 
