RFID helps overheating footballers

Hothead Technologies and Kennesaw State University are currently testing an RFID-enabled helmet that tracks the body temperature of a player and promises to lessen dangerous instances of overheating, reports Wired.com.

In the last decade, companies have looked into developing systems to better measure player temperatures to catch those in danger of heatstrokes, as they've led to unfortunate deaths.

The most high-profile player to die from overheating in the NFL is Korey Stringer, an offensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings. He died in 2001, a day after collapsing from heatstroke during an especially hot and humid day practising at his team's training camp facility.

The presence of RFID technology on the ski slopes continues to grow, and not just in access-control solutions, says RFID News.

An Austrian company is developing a RFID-based solution which lets slalom skiers know when they should have zigged rather than zagged, and other, far more detailed analysis.

The system, developed by Abatec and currently being tested by university and private researchers in Magdeburg, Germany, places RFID transponders on an athlete's skis. As the skier slaloms down a slope, readers placed along the course pick up the signal from the skis. With these readings, a computer is able to calculate the exact positioning of the skis along the entire run of the course.

American Eagle, the sister carrier to American Airlines, is implementing an RFID, sensor and GPS-enabled system that the regional airline says will help better manage its fleet of ground support equipment at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, reports RFID Journal.

The system's provider, ID Systems, reports that not only will the solution improve the GSEs' security, it should also help American Eagle reduce operating costs, as well as improve its flight operations by ensuring aircraft are efficiently maintained, loaded and unloaded.

According to Kenneth Ehrman, ID Systems' president, COO and director, the airline is outfitting several hundred of its GSEs with ID Systems' AvRamp wireless vehicle management system, which includes active RFID tags known as vehicle asset communicators.