SensAble Technologies Helps NHL Central Scouting Rank Hockey Draft
Picks With Haptically-Enabled Testing
Quantifying Finesse On the Ice through Touch-Enabled Testing and
Other Scores; Analysis Underway to Validate Whether Tests Translate Into
Success in the NHL
TORONTO & WOBURN, Mass. (Business Wire EON/PRWEB ) September 23, 2008 --
SensAble
Technologies, Inc®, a leading provider of
haptic devices and modeling solutions, announced that the NHL
Central Scouting organization is using simulation tests developed by
a Toronto-based researcher using SensAble’s
PHANTOM® force feedback devices and OpenHaptics®
software to measure player finesse in a virtual hockey game –
information the scouting group hopes will add to their predictive
accuracy of the final rankings of the top 100 draft prospects.
Tests were developed at York
University by neuroscientist Dr.
Lauren Sergio, director of the motor control lab at the school. A
hockey stick connected to a SensAble haptic device is used to measure
the players’ stick-to-ice contact and
smoothness as they move around a series of 3D virtual obstacles on a
computer screen. This exercise generates a hand-eye coordination score,
a key element that separates players with the finesse to glide, shoot
and score effortlessly, from those with less efficient on-ice
performance.
As the NHL season begins, York University is also commencing an analysis
of four years of such hand-eye coordination testing data to determine if
these tests, along with a battery of other fine motor and physiological
measures done at the annual NHL Scouting Combine each May, predict the
players that are drafted and play in the NHL. With only an estimated
one-third of hockey’s draft picks achieving
any NHL game ice time at all – the rest either
playing on farm teams or not making it at all to the pros –
defining better predictive measures may help hockey scouts to identify
the next generation of superstars, faster.
“I see great potential in this kind of
research on player performance, and am eager to see what the results
show about player scores as a predictor of NHL draft selection,”
said E.J. McGuire, director of NHL Central Scouting in Toronto. “I’ve
personally used SensAble’s devices in the
smoothness testing as created by Dr. Sergio and found the task both fun
and difficult to do. Realistic simulations that utilize force feedback
can clearly play a role in our evaluations, and it will be interesting
to see how the test results map to the success of players that make it
onto the ice.”
Each year NHL Central Scouting gathers its top 100 draft prospects in
Toronto for the Scouting Combine, where both North American and European
players undergo team interviews, medical screening and physical testing
as part of a week-long regimen. Each player participates in a York
University-designed protocol of physiological and motor control testing
created by Professor Sergio and her colleague in York’s
School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Professor Norman Gledhill. In
the haptically-enabled hand-eye coordination test, players must move
through what Dr. Sergio calls an “acceleration-dependent
curl field” to score smoothness compared to
jerky movement. The more players change direction or accelerate quickly
when they move around four pylons on screen in a slalom-like motion, the
more force SensAble’s PHANTOM device exerts
on the player’s hand. Players also undergo
breathing, heart rate and other tests to score bimanual coordination.
Results are tallied individually and combined into a total score
representing the player’s overall aptitude
for professional play.
“Often the players that score the highest on
the test are not the ones at the top of NHL Central Scouting’s
Ranking list which is published prior to the Combine,”
said Dr. Lauren Sergio, associate professor at York University. Her
research to determine how the human brain uses sensory input to control
muscle movement was funded in part by grants from the Ontario Innovation
Trust and the Canada Foundation for Innovation Investment. “Once
Central Scouting publishes the final results of all tests in the
protocol, the individual NHL teams have more information from which they
may make any final adjustments to their own individual preference list
prior to the NHL Entry Draft, which takes place in late June.”
“SensAble’s
PHANTOM premium devices are robust and have a large workspace and range
of motion,” Dr. Sergio continued. “They
have performed beautifully for us and can stand up to the repeated
testing of the tough grips of some of hockey’s
biggest, strongest players.” Dr. Sergio’s
staff also used SensAble’s OpenHaptics®
toolkit to program the PHANTOM device so that it provides the player
with the synchronous “feeling”
of moving in time with the on-screen graphics updates.
“We are at the beginning stages of an
exciting new frontier in haptically-enabled testing,”
said Dr. David Chen, chief technology officer at SensAble Technologies. “Virtual-reality
testing is moving out of the research lab and into meaningful and
measurable applications. We are pleased to be part of York University’s
ground-breaking work and are eager to help its team explore future uses
for artificial touch.”
About SensAble Technologies
Founded in 1993, SensAble Technologies is a leading developer of 3D
touch-enabled (force feedback) solutions and technology that allow users
to not only see and hear an on-screen computer application, but to
actually ‘feel’
it. With 32 patents granted and over 6,000 systems installed worldwide,
SensAble Technologies' haptic technology is being used in applications
ranging from designing toys and footwear, to surgical simulation and
stroke rehabilitation, to dental restorations, as well as a range of
research and robotic applications. The company markets its own 3D
modeling solutions as well as its haptic devices and developer toolkits
to medical, dental, design, and manufacturing companies; educational and
research institutions; and OEMs. SensAble products are available through
direct and reseller channels worldwide. www.sensable.com.
SensAble, OpenHaptics, and PHANTOM, are trademarks or registered
trademarks of SensAble Technologies, Inc. Other brand names are
trademarks of their respective holders.
See the original story at: http://eon.businesswire.com/releases/sensable_technologies/nhl_central/prweb1374314.htm
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