Sports imPULSE

Wear This Underwear And Burn Body Fat

Imagine burning body fat by just wearing your underwear. Japan-based chemistry company Teijin announced the development of underwear that can burn away body fat.  As the fabric hugs the skin, it generates friction resistance that accelerates the fat burning process.

The fabric is based on a polyester nanofiber, which is supposedly very soft and was first made public by Teijin last year. Usually, the so-called Nanofront fibers are used for industrial polishing cloths and are just 700 nanometers in diameter (a strand of hair is 7,500 times thicker). Nanofront is said to be 200,000 times more flexible than conventional polyester fibers (15μm in diameter).

Teijin claims that people who have worn the Nanofront underwear in experiments for 40 consecutive days lowered their body fat by “several percent” and consequently reduced waist size by several centimeters. The company is already in talks with a number of apparel makers and hopes to commercialize its technology as early as in next year’s spring or summer fashion season.

Now this will be interesting...

MLB Turning on HD Streaming, DVR For Tonight's Yankees-Red Sox Game

Major League Baseball is turning on its new hi-def MLB.TV media player for tonight's Yankees-Red Sox Spring Training game, which begins at 7:15 p.m. ET.

This means that MLB.TV "premium" subscribers will be able to watch the game in 720p hi-def and use DVR features like pausing and rewinding live games. This is the slick new Adobe Flash-powered MLB.TV player that we've been following this Spring, which has been rolled out gradually in beta during the World Baseball Classic.

Not a MLB.TV subscriber? MLB will offer Thursday afternoon's Yankees-Phillies game for free using the new hi-def player. That game begins at 1:05 p.m ET.

Winning Time

Have you ever wondered about the technologies that support all those timed events, such as marathons, triathlons, cycling and skiing?  Meet Winning Time, the world leader in chip timing since 1985.  They support over 2,000 events per year in over 20 countries and they are still growing!

They are the timer of some of the world's largest events, including the Lilac Bloomsday Run and the Cape Argus Cycle Tour, each with over 45,000 timed participants. Continually chosen as official partner of Seiko since 1999, Winning Time has timed over 100 IAAF World Championships in Race Walking, Marathons, Cross Country and Road Races.

Timing solutions include both active and passive chip technology and are accurate to one hundredth of a second, even when high density is coupled with top speeds.  If only that was my problem in my race events....

March Madness Web Streaming = Amazing

CBS has been streaming all of the 'March Madness' NCAA basketball tournament again this year via the web. This year, CBS has turned on a "high quality" streaming mode, and it looks amazing. (Disclaimer: We have the luxury of a super-fast corporate broadband connection and a fairly new Apple (AAPL) iMac. It might be less fantastic on a slower connection or older computer.)

This has definitely been some of the best web video we've seen in a long time.

Is That Email Or March Madness On The iPhone?

First CBS brought March Madness into the cubicle; now the men's NCAA basketball tournament is coming to meetings too.

All you have to do is pretend you're checking your email on your iPhone or iPod touch.

CBS is selling a "NCAA March Madness on Demand" app for $4.99 in Apple's iTunes app store. (Mobile TV provider MobiTV is powering the video.)

The app, which only works on Wifi, not 3G, will stream the same video and audio that goes on TV.

This also became a smart business deal for CBS due to clever deal it signed 10 years ago, CBS gets to keep a greater share of online ad revenues than offline. In this economy, every little bump helps.

Now excuse me as I get back to the game, I mean email...

Ski Boots For Comfort

Why do ski boots have to hurt? Shouldn’t skiers enjoy the same comfort as snowboarders do? The right design can make it easier to release pressure from the buckles when needed without having to undo the bottom of your pants. The POC Tarsus boots eschews buckles for laces connected to a tension wheel you dial in for the perfect fit.

As the ski season comes to an end, now might be a good time to try a new pair. 

Pulse Gear: Muve Gruve Reminds You To Get Moving

If a person can be reminded throughout the day to be active, he or she could keep their metabolism from shutting down and therefore be able to lose unwanted weight.  Makes sense, the question is how to be reminded.

The challenge was to create a system that could calculate an individual's metabolic pattern and measure calorie burn throughout a day's activity and then relay targeted caloric intake to the user

Worrell design and Dr. Jim Levine of the Mayo clinic have been developing the Muve Gruve to help athletes monitor their exercise daily. A tri-axial accelerometer is used to monitor athlete movement throughout the day and indicates their progress against their pre-measured metabolism. An indicator located at the top of the device shows an individual's progress by LED color. The data collected is ultimately synced to an Internet portal to synthesize caloric intake and personal progress.

But what happens when a person falls below the metabolic rate?  The Gruve uses vibration to notify the user it is time to get moving.  Now that is a healthy nudge!  I wonder how long it will be before we see these devices on The Biggest Loser or some other contest.

Technology Changing The Treatment Of High School Athletic Injuries

The Andrews Institute in Pensacola, FL is at the forefront of an up-and-coming medical advancement that could change the way our local high school athletes deal with injuries.

It's called Sports Musculoskeletal Ultrasound. The hefty chunk of syllables equals a promising bottom line — the technology will save high school athletes and their families time and money.

Here's how it works. An injured athlete would come to the sideline/dugout and the team's athletic trainer would take this small transducer (about the size of a computer mouse) and place it on the injured area.

The trainer would perform an ultrasound test on the injured area, then immediately upload that image onto a laptop computer and send it to a physician. From anywhere in the world, that physician could make an immediate diagnosis. The ultrasound has the ability show injuries to tendons, ligaments, muscles and most fractures.

The goal is being able to provide an immediate answer.  This saves the injured athlete time and money by providing a prescription, a recommendation or treatment right away.

As we all know injuries can be speed bumps in the career of an athlete.  Any time saved to accelerate rehab is vital.

March Madness Goes Mobile

As we get ready for that wonderful time of year - March Madness, we're getting more opportunities to view the games anywhere, especially mobile.  Extending March Madness to mobile phones, Yahoo has created a dedicated mobile site for the NCAA college basketball tournament getting underway next week.  The new site will offer cell phone users updated scores, news, schedules, expert commentary and the chance to win $1 million through its Tourney Pick 'Em contest.

Sponsored by KFC for the second straight year, the contest will award $1 million to anyone who completes a perfect bracket as well other prizes to top performers. So even if no one achieves that unlikely goal, the eligible fan with the best bracket will claim a $10,000 prize. KFC is also allowing people to use their printable brackets for discounts on 30 hot wings at its restaurants.

Registration is open now until the first tip-off on March 19.

Baseball's New MLB.TV Players Launches And It Looks Good

The World Baseball Classic kicked off this morning with Japan hosting China at the Tokyo Dome.  It's also a big morning for Major League Baseball's Internet team: It's launching its new MLB.TV web player in beta.

We tried it out this morning and must say, this does look good.  The new player uses Adobe's Flash for video, instead of the previous Microsoft Silverlight.

MLB still hasn't turned on many of the new features, including hi-def streams, DVR and multi-game view, but you can definitely see the improvement in video quality.  On our few years old Mac, it's kind of like watching a real game on TV versus the choppiness of the previous player.

There still are a few glitches here and there, but that's why they are in beta test mode.  It will be very interesting to see if the back-end will be able to handle the opening day rush.  If this beginning is any indication, there should be no reason to worry.