Distance runner not so lonely with new technology

By CHRIS BARTON

It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. Four runners in the Southern Traverse swallow a pill, strap on some monitors and a data logger and suddenly we can see inside their bodies and how they are coping with the rigours of the endurance race.

The high-tech magic comes from Dunedin-based Animation Research, commissioned by Discovery Channel to tell "the inside story" of the race.

"There are three stories to be told in the Southern Traverse," says Animation Research managing director Ian Taylor.

"The race of the athlete against others, the athlete against the terrain and the story of the athlete against himself."

The swallowed vitamin-sized pill - a tiny, high-frequency radio transmitter - enabled measurement of core body temperature to show heat loss and gain. Another monitor kept track of heart rate.

Before the race the athletes flew to a Hollywood studio to have 3D laser body scans. Animation Research, using SGI Visual Workstations, then built up pictures of their insides, including skeletons, heart, lungs and brains.

The data gathered during the race were downloaded at every checkpoint and then analysed with the help of Otago University's Human Performance Centre.

Director Alan Walmsley said that as well as monitoring the thermal stress and heart rate data, the centre advised Animation Research on how to animate the findings - showing what happens to bloodflow around the body when it gets cold or is overheated.

An interesting finding was that the athletes' average heart rate fell rather than rose over the course of the race - showing that a factor other than fitness played a key role in performance.

As well as telling the internal story, Animation Research also used aerial photographs and height field data from New Zealand Aerial Mapping (NZAM) to show "fly-overs" of the entire 460km racecourse in 3D.

It's this sort of information - "new levels with a lot more on-the-ground data" - that NZAM and Animation Research were keen to get their hands on when they bid to buy failed state owned enterprise Terralink from its receivers two weeks ago.

The consortium was prepared to pay a premium - reportedly $7 million - to get Terralink on condition the 100 other bidders did not get to look at Terralink's books. Receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers accepted the consortium's bid, but the decision will be challenged this Friday in a High Court injunction sought by Parnell-based Ocilla Investments and its partner, South African mapping firm GeoSpace International.

The worldwide interest in Terralink suggests the Government may have been hasty to put the SOE into receivership and that the company may contain some hidden jewels.

The company is well-equipped with photogrammetric scanners and soft-copy stereo workstations for viewing photographs in 3D and producing digital maps.

Mr Taylor is coy about exactly what plans he has for Terralink, except to say the company is looking at "new technology and what value-adds can be done" with mapping that brings "a whole lot of data together in one place."

Innovative use of technology - including the TV animation for the America's Cup - has long been Animation Research's hallmark.

The company completed its two- and-a-half-month Discovery Channel contract using the internet, not just to view and discuss the work in progress, but also with an online project management tool which programmer Chris Hinch added to an "evidentiary display system" the company had built for the Dunedin District Court.