Canadian ice hockey team uses RFID technology to measure players’ athletic skills
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Canada’s governing body for youth hockey, the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA), is considering deploying a team called NEXT Testing across the association’s teams.RFIDsolution. NOHA is also responsible for selecting and managing a regional team, Team NOHA. In November 2014, the team piloted the scheme.
NEXT Testing, provided by Ontario technology company HockeyTech, is being used to collect game results to select Team NOHA roster for the 2014-2015 season. In the future, the technology will be used in annual tests for all age groups and in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of players in competitions. Jason Marchand, executive director of NOHA, said it would help improve players’ abilities.
At the Team NOHA tryouts in November, 38 athletes wore RFID wristbands that could be used to check their performance during the competition. The system also uses RFID infrared (IR) sensors to calculate each player’s agility and speed, and saves this data in XML files. Based on these data, NOHA picked 2 goalkeepers, 6 defenders and 11 forwards.
There are a total of 50 NOHA junior hockey clubs in Ontario. These clubs will select several players for the Team NOHA squad in the 15-18 age group. Team NOHA will play against teams from other regions, and players who perform well will get the attention of the National Hockey League (NHL). But first, these little players need to pass some of Team NOHA’s tests first.
So on November 38 players born in 1999 were tested at the North Bay Battalion to be part of the Team NOHA squad. The selection is based on the results of 14 tests of the players’ speed and skill on the ice. Marchand expects that the next 50 NOHA association teams will use the system to test their players.
Mosher, head of player testing at HockeyTech, said NOHA coaches used to measure a player’s speed using a stopwatch and pen and paper in the past. NEXT Testing was developed in 2006 by a Wisconsin-based company of the same name, NEXT Testing. In 2013, HockeyTech acquired NEXT Testing. NEXT Texting has also become a multi-technology-based product or service of HockeyTech.
The system was developed in 2006. 2 years later, the system was first used on ice hockey to provide hockey teams with player speed results. The scheme deploys 34 infrared sensors on the ice rink, Mosher said. Every time a player passes an infrared beam, the sensor calculates the player’s speed and direction. NEXT Testing also hopes that the system can provide anonymity (the test results do not contain player names), which ensures fairness and eliminates human bias. To achieve this, the company found a way to collect ID numbers that excluded players’ names.
When a player prepares to take a test, he needs to provide his name and other identifying information (such as the name of his club). The player then receives a wristband made by Texas Instruments with a built-in LF 134 kHz RFID tag. The wristband ID number is linked to the player’s name in the NEXT Testing software. Player name information will not be viewed by coaches until the end of the selection process.
Typically, before the test begins, players start watching a video of the next 14 test items. Next, test players need to use their wrist straps to read at the gate. After the reader reads the wristband ID number, it will be uploaded to the NEXT Testing software. Then, when the gate is green, the players can start the test. Next, the NEXT Testing staff will guide the players to test, and the infrared sensor will obtain the speed and accuracy of the players. These results will be paired with the wristband RFID tag.
After the test, Team NOHA coaches will select players based on the test results. Then, the software will display the player’s name and status based on the ID number.
Before being acquired by HockeyTech, NEXT Testing considered using QR code scanning, Mosher said. Of course, RFID technology is more reliable, easy to read and reusable. Mosher expects the service will test hundreds of teenage players each year. NOHA affiliated teams will hold a player test every year. Players can also use this technique to measure their own reaction time. The coach can also judge the strengths and weaknesses of the players based on the results.
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