Re: Re: Re: The Impression Pad

["Dolores Arste" <darste@emi.com>]

Thanks Truman, just wanted to be sure you were talking about the right pad.

Dolores Arste
eCommerce Technology, Technology Integration
Phone - 518.882.6485
Fax - 518.882.5366
eFax- 208-379-1088
Cell phone - 518.461.3470
Voice/Numeric Pager - 518.865.6113

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Truman Prevatt, PhD" <truman.prevatt@netsrq.com>
To: "RideCamp" <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2001 2:54 PM
Subject: RC: Re: Re: The Impression Pad


: Thanks Michelle,
: 
: That is exactly what I am saying and yes I know the impression pas is
: worn while
: the horse is riding. Any material or device that receives and responds
: to a signal or stimulus is a sensor. The nerve ending in your skin are
: sensors, as are your ears, eyes, 
: etc. The impression pad is resonding to and measuring the pressure by
: moving around a
: material and leaving an impression. It gives you one reading when you
: are
: finished that you visually analyze.
: 
: This is an average over some time interval - most likely the last
: several
: seconds it was used - but this time probably depends on a lot of
: factors, temp, age of the pad, total weight of the rider and saddle,
: etc., and
: would need to be calibrated. And yes for $200.00 it is a wonderful tool.
: 
: What it doesn't do is give you calibrated measurements of the actual
: pressure
: over the surface of the pad 10 to 100 times a second in a data array
: which is aquired by a computer or external memory buffer, so that the
: actually
: dynamics of the saddle pressure distribution can be analyzed. You can't
: do a true dynamic fit by
: one data point. But I would say if the impression pad shows that it
: doesn't fit,
: the computerized sensor pads are going to show that it doesn't fit and
: give a much more precise picture of why.
: 
: The computerized pads will, however, because of the volume of data and
: the
: continuous measurement find fitting problems that may be averaged out by
: the
: impression pad. But for $10,000 to $20,000 (not including the laptop )
: it
: should.
: 
: The interesting thing I found when I started to research these pads is
: they are
: off shoots large industry. Most of the technology was developed for
: the medical community. The pads have been  used for a long time to
: develop better
: beds for bed ridden people, better wheel chair seats, etc. The shoe
: industry -
: particularly athletic shoes - uses them to design better shoes. From
: what I
: found out the top runners have custom built shoes based on analysis or
: there
: foot pressure on data taken while they are actually running.
: 
: Golf swings are being analyzed by use of these pads to determine the
: timing and
: amount of weight transfer during the swing. I would assume that the same
: is true
: for baseball players and maybe tennis players.
: 
: So this is a huge industry which is producing technology which we can
: take
: advantage of to get a better horse/saddle interface. Hopefully more will
: become
: available at a lower price.
: 
: Truman
: 
: Michelle Fink wrote:
: 
: > > Truman, I don't know what pad you think is the impression pad,
: > > but the impression pad does not have sensors?
: > >Dolores Arste
: >
: > Hi Dolores -
: >
: > I don't think Truman is saying there are actual sensors on the pad.  He's
: > saying it's a sensor system in terms of detecting pressure points.  He's
: > saying the pad only senses the average pressure over a larger time interval,
: > but that you sometimes also need to use computerized sensors to pick up
: > pressure points that happen at particular moments in time, for example, your
: > saddle may only have a pressure point at that exact moment where the horse
: > is at the utmost extension of his trot and he's saying an impression pad may
: > not be able to tell you about that problem *if* the saddle fits perfectly
: > the rest of the time.   Is that right (, Truman)??
: >
: > He's not saying the pad's information is worthless, but that for $200 it's a
: > good starting point for checking basic saddle fit.  (Can't wait to try my
: > friends impression pad next month!)  So, for example, if the saddle fit
: > checks out with an impression pad and you still are having sore backs or
: > other problems, it might merit using a computerized system to analyse the
: > finer points of the fit with a computer.
: >
: > Happy trails -
: >
: > m
: >
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