MARKING THE JUMP

摘要

LINEAR GUIDES USED TO PROJECT 'MARK TO JUMP' ONTO SAND FOR SPECTATORS. In athletics, some disciplines are difficult to follow for spectators. For football, it is clear to see when the ball is in the goal. In long jump, however, it is it is not easy to judge whether the last jump has set a new record. Virtual lines help the TV audience but they are not visible to spectators in the stadium. The PrimeLine system, developed by Golden Fly Sports, solves this problem by projecting the 'mark to jump' onto the sand. The mobile installation was devised by Armin Margreiter, the former national coach of the Austrian long jump team, in cooperation with the laser projection specialist MediaLas. The system consists of three laser diodes, which are aimed at the pit and produce a visible line even in direct sunlight. The developers needed a drive unit that could move the lasers along a range of distances from 3 to 12 metres. In the design of the system, the challenging environmental considerations were key. Long jumpers tend to kick up a lot of sand upon landing, which can bind with lubricants used in a conventional linear guide system causing it to stick. The development team had set the bar very high: all the components had to be robust and, above all, resistant to sand while being lightweight. Therefore, instead of traditional metal bearings, linear bearings made of the lubrication-free, high-performance polymer iglidur J200 from Igus were selected.