RUNNING New chip improves accuracy

ChampionChip has automated and revolutionized the timing of running events.
By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
High technology and automation have become part of running.
By attaching a computer chip onto a runner's shoelace, his or her times can be recorded automatically from beginning to end during a race, including at selected stages or splits along the course.
The information is then transferred instantaneously to a timing computer, and from there can be disseminated to the world via the Internet.
This shoe-chip system initially was developed in 1993 in The Netherlands, and first applied officially in the 1994 Berlin Marathon.
Since then, ChampionChip has automated and revolutionized the timing of running events, triathlons and other sports, and continues to grow more popular every year.
The technology eliminates the need for manual timing and labor-intensive work at the finish line by volunteers.
With ChampionChip used as part of the ChampionChip Timing and Scoring system, a runner's timing now can begin at the starting line no matter how far back one starts in the field, thus providing for a more-accurate net time or chip time.
This feature eliminates the time spent by a runner to get to the starting line, thus making his time accurate and usually faster.
No stopwatches, chutes
All the times are sent instantly to a timing computer for automatic recording and dissemination.
This eliminates the need to use stopwatches to time runners and chutes to process them in order at the finish, so that jersey numbers can be matched to the times, and provides for a free-flowing end to a race.
Thus, automatic, fast and accurate results are made available to race staff, participants, observers and the media, and also can be disseminated instantaneously to the Internet and the world through the race's web site.
And most of the professional timing services in the nation already offer the ChampionChip timing system, which is manufactured in The Netherlands and distributed in America by ChampionChip USA of Ann Arbor, Mich.
How it works
The ChampionChip technology works with radio signals.
The radio signals are beamed from antenna mats located on the course that runners cross over, to the ChampionChips in their shoes, back to the antenna mats. Then they travel to a control box along the course and from there to a timing computer and ChampionChip Timing System for recording and dissemination.
The basis of the technology is the radio-frequency-identification system (RFID) from Texas Instruments, which is also used for security locks in cars and admission control in buildings.
But the ChampionChip itself has no batteries. Instead, it is a miniature transponder in a specially-designed plastic housing, and contains a computer chip in combination with an energizing coil.
Receives, sends signals
A transponder, when energized, is capable of receiving radio signals and transmitting radio signals of its own.
Thus, when the transponder receives a radio signal from the antenna, the energizing coil produces an electric current to power the chip. The transponder then transmits its unique identification number to a receiver antenna in the mats.
The antenna mats are connected to a control box on the side of the road that contains electronics and batteries.
So the stage is set for automatic timing. Each time a runner wearing a ChampionChip crosses the mats, the chip gets energized and sends out its ID number.
This ID number and corresponding time are then stored in the control box and transferred to a timing computer to match with the runner's name and other information about him that are programmed into the data base.
kovach@vindy.com