Is it real ? NASA-inspired swimsuit

Everytime Michael Phelps and his almost-amphibious breed slice through water with deftness, you know what gives them the edge — ripped bodies, gangly limbs, a NASA-inspired swimsuit may be.

Swimmers from the US share these attributes with any of their counterparts in other countries, but if new reports are to be believed, then they owe their supremacy to a top-secret technology, a fluid mechanics study that could revolutionise swimming in the future.

Developed by professor Timothy Wei, head of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s (Troy, New York) Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering departments, the top-secret, state-of-the-art equipment was used by USA Swimming coaches to train Olympians.

For many years, swimming coaches have used computer modelling and simulation to hone the techniques of athletes. But Wei’s water flow diagnostic technology, originally developed for aerospace research with a video-based flow measurement technique known as Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV), has become the ultimate training aid that reports the performance of a swimmer in real-time.

“This project moved the swimming world beyond the observational into scientific fact,” a swimming coach raved.

The secret, Wei said, is in understanding how the water moves. The new system incorporates highly sophisticated mathematics with stop-motion video technology to identify key vortices, pinpoint the movement of the water, and compute how much energy the swimmer exerts.

“Swimming research has strived to understand water flow around a swimmer for decades because how a swimmer’s body moves the surrounding water is everything,” said USA Swimming’s Biomechanics Manager Russell Mark. “The ability to measure flow and forces in a natural and unimpeded environment hasn’t been available until recently, and Wei’s technology and methods presented USA Swimming with a unique opportunity that United States swimmers and coaches could learn a lot from.”

To prepare for his project, Wei has also attended number of swimming trials, including the 2007 and 2008 US Summer Nationals.

As a young researcher, Wei dreamed of measuring flow around swimming whales, but the idea never fructified. Recently, however, in the midst of his work with USA Swimming, Wei came close, working with marine biologists Frank Fish and Terrie Williams to measure the flow around swimming bottlenose dolphins at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Source : http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayitems.asp?id=SES20080817151828&eTitle=Sport&rLink=0