The Snowcookie...no it's not edible

[Eero]

@Snowcookie Hi, I was able to finally try out my new Snow Cookie system last weekend. I like the system - Especially the the ability to analyse given turn and quickly see max edge angles, balance, symmetry of angle, and turn initiation (correct or with torso), but would love to be able to dive into a deeper analysis of a given turn. A couple of thoughts / requests for future releases?)

*Are you planning on providing updated analysis screens? specifically, can you enable a way to look at any given turn in detail, rather than just an overall score: I'm thinking something like a graphical image showing the full turn: overlayed with pressure distribution changes during the turn, ski angle changes thru the turn, ski tracking during the turn (i.e. are the skies parallel thru the turn), turn shape/radius, and torso angle changes thru the turn. It would be even better if there was a way to overlay multiple turns into the same graph/image, so that a user can quickly compare turns.
* Similarly, it would be nice to see how speed changes in the turn as well (i.e. did I speed up throughout the turn, or where specifically in the turn did I scrub speed)

Finally, unrelated to analysis, are there plans to offer an option to turn off the flashing lights on the snow cookies (or perhaps a software update so that the 'flashing' pattern only occurs when data is being recorded: i.e. not when you are on a chair lift). There are times when you want to draw attention to the snow cookie (it's a great conversation starter on chairlifts), but other times it's distracting.

 

[Snowcookie]

Hi Earo,

I'm thrilled to hear you like your Snowcookies!
Now, to answer your questions. What you're writing is exactly the direction in which we're taking the system.

a) it will be more oriented towards an advanced skier who is capable of interpreting the data for him/herself. More granular information about each turn will be the priority.
Having said that, we'll start with the edge angles and symmetry. At this point I'm not 100% certain about the granularity of speed measurements in different phases of the turn. The reason is that GPS chips in smartphones usually have a pretty low sampling rate and we're dependent on it. We'll see what our Chief Algo Wizard - Mati, will be able to cook up by fusing accelerometers and GPS

b) Great idea with modifying the blinking patterns. First thing we want to do is smart sampling. When the system detects that you're on a lift it will automatically slowdown all of the measurements to extend battery life. Reducing biking will help too.
I'm not sure we want to have the option to complete switch off blinking, perhaps we could increase the blinking intervals to every 20-30 sec or so so that it's less distracting and will lesser light intensity.
You need to be able to tell that they're active after all.

Finally, stay tuned for the next week - there's a new app release currently being tested with an updated user interface on the skills spider chart.
If you're planning to ski this weekend let me know - happy to add you to TestFlight so that you could have the freshest cookie app available

Martin

 

[Eero]

Hi Martin - I'm excited to hear about the plans for the Snow Cookie app. I'll be skiing this weekend (and most every day next week) - Getting added to Testflight would be amazing!

Eero

 

[E221b]

Hi @Snowcookie. I just purchased a set of the black cookies and I'm psyched. I measured my chest at 104cm, and looked at your chart and picked a L/XL chest harness. If the harness is too loose is there a way to switch it for a M?
I'd also be willing to help beta test the app if you need testers!

 

[Mike King]

@Snowcookie Hi, I was able to finally try out my new Snow Cookie system last weekend. I like the system - Especially the the ability to analyse given turn and quickly see max edge angles, balance, symmetry of angle, and turn initiation (correct or with torso), but would love to be able to dive into a deeper analysis of a given turn. A couple of thoughts / requests for future releases?)

*Are you planning on providing updated analysis screens? specifically, can you enable a way to look at any given turn in detail, rather than just an overall score: I'm thinking something like a graphical image showing the full turn: overlayed with pressure distribution changes during the turn, ski angle changes thru the turn, ski tracking during the turn (i.e. are the skies parallel thru the turn), turn shape/radius, and torso angle changes thru the turn. It would be even better if there was a way to overlay multiple turns into the same graph/image, so that a user can quickly compare turns.
* Similarly, it would be nice to see how speed changes in the turn as well (i.e. did I speed up throughout the turn, or where specifically in the turn did I scrub speed)

Finally, unrelated to analysis, are there plans to offer an option to turn off the flashing lights on the snow cookies (or perhaps a software update so that the 'flashing' pattern only occurs when data is being recorded: i.e. not when you are on a chair lift). There are times when you want to draw attention to the snow cookie (it's a great conversation starter on chairlifts), but other times it's distracting.

When you say symmetry, do you mean right to left or top to bottom? Expert skiers have different ways of looking at symmetry than most.

Mike

 

[Snowcookie]

Hi Martin - I'm excited to hear about the plans for the Snow Cookie app. I'll be skiing this weekend (and most every day next week) - Getting added to Testflight would be amazing!

Eero

Please send me a Private Message with the email you used to sign up for your Snowcookie account. We'll add you to TestFlight.
Thnx!

Martin

 

[Snowcookie]

Hi @Snowcookie. I just purchased a set of the black cookies and I'm psyched. I measured my chest at 104cm, and looked at your chart and picked a L/XL chest harness. If the harness is too loose is there a way to switch it for a M?
I'd also be willing to help beta test the app if you need testers!

E221b,

Thanks for buying the cookies! Worry not, if the harness turns out be too loose we'd happily send you a new one.
This week we're getting a shipment of new "one-size-fits-all" harnesses. They're marginally thicker but offer more adjusted options.
Let me know,

Martin

 

[Snowcookie]

When you say symmetry, do you mean right to left or top to bottom? Expert skiers have different ways of looking at symmetry than most.

Mike

Mike,

Thanks for asking. It's left to right ski.
I'll have Mati answer this in more detail tomorrow as he's designed the algorithms.

Best,
Martin

 

[Snowcookie]

When you say symmetry, do you mean right to left or top to bottom? Expert skiers have different ways of looking at symmetry than most.

Mike

Hi @Mike King!
For us the turn symmetry is a measure of skis dynamics similarity in terms of angular velocity along skis direction. That is, if both skis are getting on edges equally fast or close enough in time domain we consider this as a good symmetry, otherwise it is claimed to be a poor symmetry. Is that clear or you would like me to elaborate this more?

Cheers,
Mati

 

[E221b]

Hey @Snowcookie I sent you a PM about TestFlight if you're interested in having another beta tester!

 

[Snowcookie]

Hi @E221b,

Thanks a lot for your interest in Snowcookie, also lot of other forum users ask for beta testing. Right now we have released new app version, but probably next major release might be already cross-platform version for both Android and iOS. So to all interested in beta testing our system (app) we will come back to you later this season to try out first new iOS app and probably quite soon after that the Android version. Stay tuned!

Best
Mati

 

[Snowcookie]

Hi everyone in the New 2020 year
Hope it will be full of snow and we could all enjoy our runs. Moreover, to say thank you for your interest in Snowcookie and for your participation in this discussion we have prepared a small gift - limited promo code for our system to those of you who were interested but did not decide yet to give it a try. Hopefully it is OK with all rules on this forum and administrators/moderators will allow us to paste it here. To get 15% discount code on Snowcookie sets (both black and yellow) please enter 15PUGSKI2020 on checkout. This is time and units limited offer

All best!
Mati

 

[Skitechniek]

@Philpug @Snowcookie
Can this thing measure ground reaction force?

And what is the difference between black and yellow?

And when is it coming out for Android users?

 

[Snowcookie]

@Ski

@Philpug @Snowcookie
Can this thing measure ground reaction force?

And what is the difference between black and yellow?

And when is it coming out for Android users?

What do you understand by GRF? This are vertical ground reaction forces acting on skiers foot or on the ski? Unfortunately, we can not achieve none of that directly with IMU technology, although sensors in such configuration can deliver good input for estimation methods, providing really nice results. You can check several papers about that if you are interested:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6111315/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022460X1830244X
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021929018306821
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2018.00218/full

We might consider this parameter in the future, but currently we are focusing on other, more promising features for our customers. And, we already have something more general in the system like body weight/balance distribution in turn, which connects with GRF. If someone is interested in GRF we might also consider exporting raw sensor mesurement for custom analysis or some estimation solutions verification. Carv should perform better right now in that field, as they measure that directly with their pressure insoles. Question about their quality and resolution. Maybe someone else on the forum could share some insights about their gear and experience with insoles data. I am not sure if they present plain insoles data or just some aggregates.

As for the difference between black and yellow - black are made from more premium materials, they come with a nice rugged casing and will automatically get all new features in the future. Yellow ones come with a paper box only, have thinner casing plastics and will have to pay extra for future feature upgrades.

Android - we plan to release Android alpha version in February/March, so rather at the end of the season for internal test and we plan to invite some of our most active subscribers and current customers to take part in those test. This cooperation might end up in releasing some beta at the end of this season (April/May), but that is not sure, it would depend on the stability and satisfaction from the app quality. Full version is scheduled for release for the next season and it should be already a crossplatform app where iOS and Android will be fully synched with all functionality and features.

 

[Skitechniek]

@Snowcookie
Thanks!

I mean GRF under the ski, would be a very useful tool for pro racers e.g. if that were to be possible.

Cool, love to do some testing if you still need people. Definitely interested in buying these for my own clinics. If I have a ski with a snowcookie and a set of bindings that can be adjusted, then I can show my guests their data and make improvements accordingly. Would be awesome.

 

[Psieyes]

Having now skied with Snowcookies for +20 days, including every day this past week in Saas Fee, Switzerland I thought I’d drop a review.

I have skied for +20 years, and use the Snowcookies on two different skis: Blizzard Brahma 88s and Rossignol Pursuit.

All in all a great system that really does improve your skiing. Snowcookies deliver on their promise of improving your ski performance, by clearly and intuitively evidencing areas for improvement(s). I was particularly happy to see how my skiing improved as my numbers improved. The areas where I was presented with lower scores, allowed me to understand exactly where I could achieve incremental improvements. When, for example, my ‘Turn IQ’ (symmetry in edging, shortening transition times, body mass distribution etc) evidenced I wasn’t distributing my body mass over the outer ski, I spent runs fixing this as best I could. My numbers changed and I could see and feel an improvement in my skiing. I am very confident that the Snowcookie system is able to deliver considerable improvement to ones ski performance

The two Snowcookies are very easy to fit on skis. The connector plates mounted in front of the ski bindings ensure the Snowcookies stay locked in and maintain a snug fit throughout the day, whether in deep snow, moguls or more challenging terrain. In over 20 days of skiing, my Snowcookies never once came off, or in any way seemed lose or ‘unconnected’. Removal is simple. Simply click out the Snowcookies from the respective mounts.

Snowcookie is a startup, yet the product package is very solid and performs well. I have found the Snowcookie team to be super responsive to any questions. If you are gadgety and want to understand how to improve your skiing, then Snowcookie should interest you. Its important to state that the Snowcookie system does not replace a ski instructor, but actually greatly enhances formal instruction, as now both you and your instructor can examine exactly what you are doing right or wrong.

I do wonder how the system scores off-piste and deep snow riding, given that Turn IQ and body position scores you on not being ‘backward’. Leaning back slightly is inherent to deep snow skiing, as is a different ski pressure balance to groomers. How does that work?

Keep at it! Its a great product. I look forward to continue improving and ‘beating’ the system.