Featured Articles

Video-Based Fitness

NetAthlon - Uses the latest real-time 3D and networking technologies to enable users of indoor fitness equipment to train or compete in a realistic immersive outdoor training environment.

Game Bike - transforms gaming into a truly interactive experience. Imagine controlling every movement on the screen with your own body movement. Control steering, speed, turns, strategy and more! The Plug and Play Cateye GameBike connects to Sony Playstation 2, and other video game consoles.

Sports-PC - performance training system with 5 targets per panel, a scoreboard, and a time clock. Sports-PC most accurately simulates actual play to ensure use of correct muscle combinations and neurological pathways. Basic installation, technical and user training are required with purchase.

Makoto - imagine yourself in a battle against three opponents at once. An electronic opponent activates with a cue tone and a flash of light. To score a point you must lunge to strike the lighted target before it darkens.

Kilowatt - builds upper body strength while playing video games (e.g. Playstation, xBox, GameCube, Windows, Mac). The Kilowatt reaplces the joysticks, so that the user has to use muscular strength to move the "large" analog sticks.

Cybex Trazer (R) - combines optical position tracking, VR simulation and computer analysis to create patented performance testing, sports training, fitness, rehabilitation and kinesthetic learning applications. Real-world reaction time, acceleration, deceleration, speed, power, balance, agility, endurance and heart rate are precisely measured and used to drive interactive games, testing protocols, training drills and fun fitness activities.

Devices Update

Noise-Canceling Headphones

Active noise-canceling headphones have built-in microphones that sample ambient noise and electronic circuitry to remove the noise. The phones synthesize sound waves that are equal and opposite to the low frequency the microphone picks up; the result is that low-frequency noise is cancelled out. Most consumer-based noise-canceling phones can cut ambient noise by 70%.

Be aware that passive noise-canceling phones are simply normal phones with big ear cupes that fit completely over the ears. They are designed to block out some outside noise, but they do not cancel out sounds. These types of phones also tend to be heavy and sometimes uncomfortably to wear for long periods of time.

Tips/Tutorials

Excel: Cut, Copy, Paste Choices

First Option: Highlight the cell and choose Edit-Copy and then click the destination cell for the data and choose Edit-Paste.

Second Option: Use shortcuts, such as right-click (windows OS) to choose copy and paste from the pop-up menu. Even better, choose CTRL-C (COMMAND-C for Mac) for copying, CTRL-X (COMMAND-X for mac) for cutting, and CTRL-V (COMMAND-V for mac) for pasting.

Third Option: use the drag-and-drop feature. Click the cell and rest the pointer on the cell's border. When the pointer turns to a four-sided arrow, drag the cell to a new location. Hold the CTRL key as you drag to copy.

Web Pages for March

Dietary Guidelines for American 2005

http://www.healthierus.gov/dietaryguidelines/

Be Healthy

http://wye.egreen.wednet.edu/classroom/
health/behealthy.htm

Spring 2004 Online Courses
February 15, 2005 - May 15, 2005

• Fitness Software
• Record Book Technology
• Web Design and Activities
• Instructional Software
• Technology Devices
• Electronic Portfolios
• Spreadsheets

Each course is $100 plus an additional $50 for college credit if needed. Click on each course for more information. You may register through April 1, 2005. There will be a summer session and all of these courses will be offerred.

Future Devices

High Tech Shirts Record Vital Signs

The LifeShirt is a sleeveless spandex garmet equipped with an electrocardiogram (ECG) for gauging heart rate and embedded wires for measuring respiration. Developed by VivoMetrics in Ventura, California, the device has been used in a variety of medical studies and clincial trials. The main advantage of the device is that it can provide researchers with a continuous stream of information about a person's health without interferring with their daily activities. The shirt is connected to a handheld unit that stores the recorded data on a compact flash memroy card. The unit has a touch screen that allows the individual wearing the shirt to report any symptoms, moods, and/or activities while wearing the LifeShirt. The LifeShirt also comes with an accelerometer that can track the wearer's posture and activity level, indicating whether he/she is lying down or standing up, walking, or running. The LifeShirt can be outfitted with additional monitoring equipment, including a pulse oximeter for measuring the amount of oxygen in the blood and a throat microphone for determinig the frequency of coughing.

You can't buy your own LifeShirt just yet. The garment is currently leased to clincis and research groups; athought eh company may eventually offer the Lifeshirt to consumers.

Funding Sources

Box Tops for Education

Thousands of schools nationwide are a "billion times better" thanks to Box Tops for Education fundraising program. Since its inception in 1996, more than 80,000 schools have collectively redeemed more than one billion Box Tops coupons, earning a total of $100 million to use for everything from computers or playground equipment to textbooks and art supplies. Go to http://www.boxtops4education.com for more information.

2005 Aetna Foundation Regional Community Grants
Go to: http://www.aetna.com/foundation/community
grants/2004_rfp.htm

Aetna is committed to improving the quality of health by reducing racial and ethnic disparities through an integrated business and philanthropic approach. Aetna will devote up to $2.6 million to regional initiatives to reduce health disparities through improving cultural competency of health professionals and disease prevention and awareness related to children's oral health, diabetes, and depression.

Funding Sources

Bonnie's Fitware Inc Grant Program

Software Choices:

1. Health Related Fitness
2. Volleyball Complete
3. Sim Athlete
4. Biomechanics Made Easy
5. Muscle Flash
6. Elementary Physical Education Dictionary

The application is simple (no more than two pages): Name of person submitting the proposal and email address; Name of school, address, phone number; Name of software (one title per proposal) and platform (Windows or Macintosh); Description of how (specifically) you will use the software; Description of how (specifically) you will determine if the software makes a difference in student learning.