GE Lighting has helped monitor athletes performance with LED biosensors at the 2016 Summer Olympics that took place from Aug. 5-21, 2016 in Rio de Janerio and its projects there invovles more than illuminating venues.

The American lighting giant worked in more than four sectors in the Rio Olympics including lighting, healthcare, energy and digital performance management, reported The Jakarta Post.

Having been one of The Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsors for 10 years, the company has more than 1,000 infrastructure projects valuing US $1.5 billion. GE Lighting has acquired 170 projects at the Rio Olympics alone, and the projects also cover Rio Paralympics Games coming in September.

At this year’s Olympic, GE Current donated more than 1,600 smart LED lights that were installed in Flamengo Park and Lapa in Rio that has halved energy consumption at these sports venues.

LED lights are now capable of more than illuminating sports venues, it can even be embedded in biosensors to monitor athlete performance visually.

According to a report from the Daily Dot, GE developed biometric sensors embedded with LEDs to help monitor athlete performance by turning their movements into light-paintings.

Various sensors were included in the device to track atheletes acceleration, muscle activity, and heart rate.

To create the illusion of athletes painting their performances, GE crafted a variety of sensor rigs designed to capture several important factors including acceleration, muscle activity, and heart rate. 

"These analog impulses are captured via sensor, converted into digital information, and with our custom software, measured, cleaned (there is a significant amount of 'noise' that the sensors pick up when connected to the body), and re-converted into analog information that drives a series of red, green, and blue LED lights," explained Steve Pepe, the global leader of commercial marketing at GE.

With the data complied, GE is able to control some of the light parameters, such as intensity, color composition, and frequency. The sensor inputs are recorded and converted 240 times per second to reflect the actions of the lighting is accurate.

The LEDs are then turned into digital paint when recorded under slow motion and long exposure photography, transforming athlete’s physical performance into visual information.

Athletes training information is strictly confidential, some of the athletes that partook in the project, but missed the cut to represent their country at the Olympicss included American gymnast Josh Dixon, pole vaulter Kortney Ross and weightlifter Donovan Ford.