I think "YES! Something really interesting! Something I can relate to!" But no. As it turns out, upon further inspection, that this was obviously just placed here to annoy horse people. The article tells of a future of equestrian sports that could be safer if we made some changes. The paragraph reads as follows:
HOLOGRAPHIC OBSTACLES
About 100 riders are injured in eventing falls every year, and when a multimillion-dollar horse goes down, even a minor injury like a twisted ankle can end its career. Computerized bases on the ground could project holographic obstacles, such as four foot fences and 15 foot wide pools, in place of dangerous physical objects. Line-of-sight infrared beams could monitor the edges of the obstacles; if the horse breaks the beam, the system would instantly alert the judges-and the crowd-to the fault.
OK. So was I the only one that had the image in my brain of a spy sneaking into the bank by avoiding lasers?
So how about the negative? Difficult to read distances, horse will lose respect for the jumps, etc. Also, only a few people would have the funds for such equipment on their farm. What is the horse to think when he shows up to jump and the oxers look funky? I just can't see this going well. Sorry Popular Science... but this idea sucks. Good luck in the future!
I spent an hour today helping my daughter and her class put up and teardown 10 jumps for her advanced jumping course. It's cold it's raining and muddy, and I thought to myself wouldn't holographic jumps be awesome? And I thought to myself I could be a millionaire if I created that. I immediately went to Google and discovered that someone has beat me to the punch and I'm so surprised that so many riders are against it. Perhaps they have people sitting there jumps up for them but being one of those people that do the setting up I'm all for it I love the idea of flipping a switch and the jumps go on and off. what I want to know is where to get them and how do they work? I want to try them out. Let's get going on this great idea already ! I understand the traditionalists I'm gonna like it but he get real this is the new age, the information age, the digital age, let's get with the program !
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