Do you ever wonder what would happen if your child gets lost on the mountain during skiing lessons? One North Lake Tahoe resort is taking a proactive step to put parents at ease if this were to happen.

Alpine Meadows is has just announced a whole host of new improvements at the beginning of the winter season that will bring the resort into the 21rst century. One of the improvements is a GPS tracking system for skiers that will assist parents, resort staff, and rescue authorities.

Here is the skinny on the resorts technological improvements:

Alpine Meadows announces several resort improvements, including the Magnestick, a magnet that is adhered to the back of childrens’ ski school vests that literally sticks them to the magnet on the resort’s chair lifts. Alpine is the first resort in the U.S. to use the Magnestick, which unsticks as children disembark from the chair at the lift’s end. Also new is the Flake GPS, a tracking device worn by youths in ski school, a redesigned children’s center complete with automated registration kiosks and interactive educational stations and an outdoor play area with a new magic carpet surface lift. Those breaking for lunch will enjoy Alpine’s redesigned outdoor seating area at its base lodge, which offers a 75,000-foot sundeck, slope-side seating and a new fire pit.

There is not too much information out about the Flake GPS on the Great Interwebs, so there is some doubt as to what this device actually is. Does it use a cell phone modem or radio frequency transmission? Is it a real time GPS tracker or some other type tracking of device?

It is probably some type of dormant tracker that is able to be activated when it is needed. Real time tracking could run into some privacy concerns with parents and devious employees.

Source: http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20101106/COMMUNITY/101109911/1066&ParentProfile=1051

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, who is better know simply as Ronaldo or Cristiano Ronaldo, has had his free kicks clocked by Castrol Performance Analysis. With the use of GPS tracking systems, the research company was able to put numbers behind the most-expensive-player-in-the-world’s shot. His numbers: 31.1m of acceleration per second at the moment of impact.

How does the foot of this soccer phenom compare? The Apollo 11, which launched in July of 1969, 16 years before Ronaldo was born, accelerated at a measly 7.3m a second after its blast-off. This makes Ronaldo’s free kicks over 4 times faster than a rocket ship. Crazy!

This does highlight some interesting applications of GPS technology, which can be used to measure complex metrics that are useful in a wide array of application and situations. By being able to determine location and altitude while recording time all sorts of movement and speed metrics become available to the researcher.

While the acceleration of Ronaldo’s free kick is not the most important thing to be measuring with that level of precision, it does make the point plane that GPS tracking can be used in this way.

Source: NOTW

Extreme athletes who want to be able to take high definition video while doing their thing have no further to look than the GoBandit. This camcorder is specially designed with the adrenaline junky in mind, allowing users to take beautiful video easily and effortlessly by attacking the cam to a helmet, handlebar, or pack. The GoBandit features an impressive 720p resolution while shooting 30 frames per second. The device has 2 GB of built in memory but can handle up to 32 GB if the right sized SDHC card is installed.

Here is a quick snippet from the GoBandit site talking about the GPS tracking feature:

3D GPS

Using advanced GPS technology in conjunction with unique software algorithms, gobandit GPS-HD can record your adrenaline in 3 dimensions. Standard GPS calculates speed and distance on a horizontal plane, perfect for biking along a highway or running along a path, but just doesn’t cut it with extreme sports. gobandit GPS technology calculates speed and distance in 3D ensuring every heart-thumping minute of action is captured. Whether you’re launching off a snowy summit, biking down insanely steep terrain or jumping out of an airplane, the GPS-HD records your adventure every step of the way!

This device is set to ship out in April and will run somewhere around $475 US. Not all athletes are going to want to take advantage of this passive GPS tracking HD camcorder, but those that do will get some sweet shots when they jump out of a plane, off of a cliff, or ride through a particularly treacherous downhill section.

Source: GoBandit

Zanier, an Austrian company, has decided that they want to put a GPS receiver inside of some ski gloves. While I applaud the move to cram GPS into everything we possibly can, is this really necessary? The glove will do more than simply track your altitude, speed and distance traveled, all of which will be available for download once you are safety back at the ski lodge through a USB port. It will also serve as a GPS navigation device as well. Need help finding your car? Have time while doing a double diamond trail to see where you are at? The X-Plore.XGX will give you all you need to make those things happen.

In addition to being a passive GPS tracking device, the ski gloves will also keep your hands nice and toasty. They will use Gore-Tex X-Trafit, a high quality material designed to optimize the sensation of touch while still keeping the hand protected and warm.

The power source for this glove / passive tracker combo will come from a Lithium Ion battery which will presumably be recharged via a USB connector.

In all, I don’t see very many people using a pair of tracking gloves. Sure, there might be some uber rich, techno-geek, or survivalist that wants these gloves for their collection, but the average skier is probably going to pass on these for now. Even though Zanier has not released a price for these puppies, I doubt that they are going to be cheap – which means that they are going to be reserved as a luxury item for the rich or as a necessity for the crazy. If you are the type of person that has to have this type of thing, then just wait 10 years and you will be able to find passive GPS tracking ski gloves for dirt cheap.

Source: GPSObsessed