A young design student at Northumbria University has come up with a novel way to monitor how tired footballers are while playing a game. David Evans, from Woodley in Cheshire, has created a shirt which has in-built pulse and sweat monitors that alert managers to players’ heart rate and hydration levels. Apparently the shirt will use sensors to record the electrical activity of the heart and send signals to a computer on the team bench, alerting managers, coaches and physios to any abnormal rhythms.
Silicon gel based strips are connected to the top of the players’ backs and react to sweat loss to monitor hydration levels, indicating if a player is fatigued or dehydrated and needs to be substituted.
Additionally a sensor on the shirtsleeve allows the bench to communicate with players out on the pitch, by sending radio waves to a transmitter that gives off a small vibration. This alerts the player to look towards the bench when necessary.
The potential change in the value of players could be huge. No more million pound transfers for footballers – the big money would be spent on computer hackers. Their job would be to take control of the opposing team’s computer and ensure that at the crucial moment, perhaps during a penalty shoot-out, (sound familiar?) the kicker is prodded into looking away just as he kicks the ball. Could this be England’s great chance? Even better news for footballers’ wives is that the shirts are washable!
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