Sportsim Weblog

GPS in Orienteering

This weekend will the orienteering club in Kongsberg, Norway, organize Pinseløpet 2006, an orienteering event with approx 900 participants.  Some of the most avid beta testers of Sportsim is part of the club and are really pioneers when it comes to GPS and orienteering.  Comparing of GPS tracks makes this sport even more spectacular to perform and view.

Sportsim has in it's new software development taken care of some special requirements for the orienteering sport as we view this sport interesting in the general development. Orienteering challenges important areas for making custom maps available and design complicated event structures with many courses and classes.

This weekend has the club decided to introduce the new Sportsim beta to the GPS participants, and we do expect some bug feedback...

Google-O is Google Earth Virtual Orienteering

Baard Smestad is an avid Sportsim user that has released his first beta on a virtual orienteering concept with Google Earth. Check out this first Google-O example near Oslo, Norway. Open the file in Google Earth and complete the course by visiting the Check Points.  The Check Point locations can be identified from a given browser map. All Check Points have to be visited before you can finish the course on best possible time. You need to combine your orienteering skills with Google Earth “Game Controls”

So what’s the use?

It’s fun! and this could be a really cool mash-up for online competitions.  In real orienteering is the map handed to the athlete at the starting line and Check Points are logged with an electronic chip that is controlled at the finish line. In Google-O could all this work from a web site?

How about this:

• At a given time is a Google-O file and a course map published on a web site.
• When the virtual athlete has finished is the result verified for time and Check Points on the web.
• The standings are then published at the web site.

In Sportsim there is a blue link to view: Map, Track, and Photos in Google Earth, but Baard has visualized a new way of applying Google Earth.