Football Team Might Add Wearable Practice Technology

Submitted by GrowBlue on

Sorry Freep Link :(

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverine…

 

The gist is that the team is in talks to use wearable technology from GoRout.com. There would be cell-phone-like devices on the players' arms that would be used to send in practice plays, scout team plans, and such. The coaches are reportedly quite impressed with the product.

kevin holt

April 20th, 2016 at 8:49 AM ^

That sounds awesome. I don't think it should be used in games of course, which raised another concern (that I'm sure isn't that much of a concern): the team still needs to practice getting plays the way they would in a game, so practicing with another method could be counterproductive. But that's almost definitely a con outweighed by many pros.

Truthbtold

April 20th, 2016 at 3:05 PM ^

He didn't know what he was doing at the end of the MSU game
He didn't know what he was doing the entire OSU game.
He didn't know what he was doing by being a obnoxious ass about satellite camps, resulting in a ban.

Crazy Jim doesn't always know what he is doing....

it's Science

April 20th, 2016 at 9:26 AM ^

As a information security professional, we have a saying, "all it takes is one"

- A booster from a rival school who cares too much about football pays dark web hackers for realtime access to plays

- Gambling rings with ties to certain schools or sleazy coaches who owe them money or on their payroll do the same as the above

- Any computer science student with a love of football and a day or two to kill

- Mark Dantonio trying desperately to hold on to what time MSU has left enlists MSU students for help (just kidding, MSU students won't figure that shit out)

Obviously, said sleazy coaches would have to be willing to use that illegally obtained information, but as I said at the start, "all it takes is one".




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NRK

April 20th, 2016 at 9:34 AM ^

Right, I mean why even use a computer, or a cell phone? or a credit card? or have a job with a SSN? Or file taxes?

 

This is why I pay for all my goods in gold bullion or barter. It makes life so much easier.

 

And especially when it comes to football we know teams have NEVER tried taping hand signals, or hiring lip readers to try to get play calls, so there's no analog hole...

 

Come on, this is fear of risk swallowing any progress. If everybody thought like this we'd live in the stone age.

it's Science

April 20th, 2016 at 9:42 AM ^

While your point is noted, you're being a bit obtuse and your sarcasm is not needed. I don't care if they do or do not use the technology. I'm simply providing a opinion. I'm not in the mood for a philosophical debate with you. So I'm gonna leave it at that and get back to work.




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NRK

April 20th, 2016 at 10:46 PM ^

Lighten up a little bit. When I say something silly you have every right to be sarcastic to me. And we'll have a good laugh.

I get the concern (trust me, I deal with data breach and data privacy issues on a regular basis in my job), but everything is a risk spectrum and immediately going to the most conservative "don't use it" due to some risks is just as bad as ignoring those risks altogether in my opinion.

1VaBlue1

April 20th, 2016 at 9:50 AM ^

Nobody should live their life with an irrational fear of risk.  We each have our limits, but some simple precautions can make things safer (ie: seat belts).  The IoT is not secure - not one single bit.  But that doens't mean you shouldn't use those things, it just means you should take some precautions with them.  You haven't been hacked because noobody is interested in you.  That's all.  If someone decides they want to hack you, you will be hacked.

Eventually, plays will be called through an interface of this type, rather than running one in with a backup player.  I can see some booster deciding that stealing real time data may be useful, and then create a way to get that pilfered data to a coach on the sideline.  There's a way to do it - it just hasn't been exploited yet.  

ijohnb

April 20th, 2016 at 10:19 AM ^

how people in the stone age felt about life.  I wonder if they generally enjoyed themselves or if they were oft-bothered by the lack of enhanced play-getting-in technology.  Would be interesting to ask somebody from the stone age about this issue.

Nobody Likes a…

April 20th, 2016 at 9:33 AM ^

A friend of mine runs the largest bug bounty program in the world and I am frequently picked as a fed at defcon so I'm fairly well versed. It's a matter of interest more than anything else. I'm not saying they wouldn't do this but the devices themselves are the least likely point of access. The data at rest is just as likely to be exploitable as it is while the device is being used. All this does is marginally expand the area of attack.

I doubt this makes another team or school more likely to try to steal our data more than they are trying to presently. In my eyes the risk is not significant such that it should prevent going ahead with this

ats

April 20th, 2016 at 9:49 AM ^

Meh, someone makes a simple spectrum jammer, run it at game, nothing works, coaches and players dependent on it fail horribly.  FYI, a spectrum jammer is incredibly easy to make, small, etc.

1VaBlue1

April 20th, 2016 at 10:17 AM ^

The NFL stops game action and removes all radio/phone devices from both teams if this happens on Sundays.  In fact, they send an entire team to each game to manage the broadcast spectrum, including setting up firewalls to help keep it clean.  I read about this last year, but forget where I found it...  Probably on nfl.com.

 

edit:  Here's the link to the nfl.com story, and here's another one that's a better read.

reshp1

April 20th, 2016 at 11:22 AM ^

As you pointed out the vast majority of security breaches are the result of a human point of weakness. In that light, nothing really is different than what's already going on. I mean, hand signals from the sidelines aren't exactly hard to "hack."

youn2948

April 20th, 2016 at 10:27 AM ^

Like lets freak out man.

Technology comes out

Technology is hacked

Revision is made

Technology is hacked again

Encryption of signal gets stronger

Stronger super computer is made

Encryption gets stronger

 

It's a cycle and one I wouldn't worry about.  On the offchance that it does get hacked oh well.  Especially if it's just for practice.  If you encrypt all of the traffic using keys that change often it could be pretty secure.

Anything can be hacked even if you put your computer in a room then fill it with concrete.

That's where the term reasonably good security comes from.

Nobody Likes a…

April 20th, 2016 at 8:58 AM ^

This sounds similar to the sort of 'action bibs' that started popping up on premier league training grounds a few years ago.

I'd really like to see accelerometers and gyroscopes put in players helmets to greater improve player safety, but that seems a long way off

NCMtnBlue

April 20th, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^

Hold me TomVH

Mike Jones? Who?

Oakland is still in play

I think Hoke has changed the tide on the rivalry.  Hell, people in Ohio are starting to believe him.  Never in a million years would I have thought that.  Selling Michigan Jerseys is a good start.  (My all time favorite by the way)

cjAk5h

 

BrownJuggernaut

April 20th, 2016 at 9:09 AM ^

I would use wearable tech mostly to monitor the conditioning of my players from a health/medical standpoint, but this also sounds like a good way to have efficient practices.

ptrack

April 20th, 2016 at 9:37 AM ^

I don't think this is so much about in game use as it is to make practice more efficient.  It looks like the most beneficial place it can be used is for scout team players.  This should allow them to easily see and understand their assignments when trying to run an opponents scheme they are not familiar with.  Seems like this should let them get in more higher quality reps in during practice if the coaches aren't spending time breaking down an opponents scheme and trying to make sure scout team players are getting all their assignments spot on.

Sounds like a win to me.