TECNALIA makes the starting signal of a competition easier to detect for athletes with sense disability.

A new system warms about the start of a competition through visual signals to athletes suffering from hearing disability to give them a similar time of reaction to the rest of the athletes.

TECNALIA has developed a new system based on several wireless connected devices to make easier the starts in the speed competitions to disabled people while giving the athlete the opportunity of reacting in almost the same time as their competitors.

This project is the result of the detected difficulties in some deaf people when taking part in Open competitions, which are the competitions where they face people who are not disabled. Normally, in these competitions, the athlete with hearing disability knows that the judge has given the starting signal because he/she can feel the vibrations produced on the floor when they shoot, because he/he can see the explosion when the gun is trigger or due to the coach help who can knock on the athlete’s back to let him/her know that the race is going to start. All this process requires of a very long time to react, which makes them star the race later than the rest.

TECNALIA overcomes this problem with a new system able to distinguish between a true start and a non-true start (which can be recognized for two consecutive shots) and this way the athlete can be warned through visual signs in the same moment of the start. With this device TECNALIA tries to make shorter the athlete’s start time, to improve its marks and to get the required minimum to take part in the world competitions and as a consequence in the Paralympics games.

The main innovation in this system is the possibility of perceiving the sound of the shot in the same moment that the rest of the athletes which are perceiving it through their ears. This system has a mechanism with some lights which is located in the starting line, just opposite the athlete, and that the coach of the athlete will activate through a wireless control. This means that when the judge says “Ready”, the coach will switch the red light: when the judge says “Steady” he/she will switch the yellow light and finally, the system will catch automatically the sound of the shot itself and in this same moment, the light will get green.

This is a pioneering system developed in collaboration with some Basque companies such as, Enkoa, Leabai and the Adapted Sport Federation of Gipuzkoa and many other experts in adapted athletics, as the coach Valentin Rocadio and the deaf and visually disabled Casimiro Ondo.