Innovative Timing Systems

Arizona Cardinals use Jaguar Timing for their Cardinals Climb Fundraising Event.

The Arizona Cardinals NFL team held an amazing fundraiser this past weekend that brought in over $2 million dollars. The entire event took place in State Farm Stadium, their home field. The event included challenging courses that weaved through the stadium. Dignitaries including Kurt and Brenda Warner were on hand to inspire the athletes. Some of the Cardinal players including Trey McBride, Darius Robinson, and Michael Wilson were also there to encourage participants. The money raised will support the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center, the Barrow Neurological Foundation, Special Olympics Arizona, and Treasure House, a residence for special needs adults built by Kurt and Brenda Warner.

Mangled Momentum Event Timing & Management, a premier Jaguar timer was selected as their partner for course design, packet pickup, timing and results. Breanna Bissell, the CEO of Mangled, put together a team of Jaguar timers who truly delivered amazing results. Scott Wood and Bruce Bokish are two of the top Jaguar timers in the world, and their assistance was invaluable. Scott brought in 10 timing systems, as well as the equipment needed to produce live results on the jumbotron inside the stadium. ITS staff including Kevin McCallum and John Gomes also provided support to the timing team. In total, Breanna's staff included 20 seasoned individuals. Congratulations to Breanna, and the entire team. Once again, Jaguar technology, and our timing family, delivered!

Innovative Timing Systems releases Jaguar Version 7.0.33 with new AI features!

This past week, ITS released their newest Jaguar software update that continues to build on the engineering excellence found in the platform. The company has always had an extreme focus on reliability, redundancy, accuracy and efficiency. Over the past two years, the company has been incorporating AI technology into various products, and the outcome of these efforts has been amazing.

Jaguar Version 7.0.33 incorporates new AI technology for improving read success as well as accuracy. One of the greatest challenges in RFID race timing is capturing the signals that come from inexpensive passive RFID chips on runners, cyclists, triathletes, motorcycles and cars. The signal coming from the chip is very weak due to the passive design. Passive simply means there is no battery in the chip and it harnesses its power from the signal sent from the timing system. The timing system sends out a 1 watt signal that is amplified by the antenna / mat in use. However, the chip sends back a signal that is 0.1 watts...best case. This makes it difficult to read, especially when there are other radio signals and noise in the air. So, what has ITS done to overcome these challenges?

Jaguar now uses a proprietary technology that tells the chip to re-send the information in the event that the signal cannot be read properly. For example, if the Jaguar system knows there are 10 chips at the finish line, but 1 of those chips is not reporting the bib number correctly, Jaguar may tell the chip to send its data 4 or perhaps 40 times in order to increase the chances of capturing the data. The data being received can then be assembled into a full response that includes the bib number as well as other information. The algorithms that perform this capability use AI to analyze multiple pieces of information to determine when the chip needs to send data again, and how many times it should be sent. It happens dynamically and adjusts in real-time to manage varying conditions that may occur throughout a race. The ability to fine-tune the operation of the system means that Jaguar can perform as well or better than competing systems that require customers to purchase expensive Active chips that have an internal battery. So how is this new technology performing thus far?

Over the past weekend, numerous races were timed by Jaguar timers around the world. A number of those races used this new technology built into a free software update. The results have been astonishing. Not only have the read rates been anywhere from 99.94% to 100% at several challenging events...the read accuracy has been improve to just inches. Being able to achieve 100% reads on passive chips, and also delivering incredible accuracy, has been nearly impossible for the RFID race timing industry. ITS has led the market by leaps and bounds for years, and this new technology moves the company even further ahead.

This past weekend, Precision Race, a premier Jaguar timer provided their timing services to the Minnesota Cycling Association. MCA is a leader in mountain bike races for young people from age 10 up to high school seniors. Going back to 2012, this organization has been accelerating the sport of mountain biking to the youth of America. Although these athletes are young, their performance is truly inspiring. It's not unusual to see 3 to 4 riders side-by-side as they cross the finish line at 30mph. Some of their events will have up to 1,000 young people competing in multiple races throughout a weekend. Riders can qualify throughout the season to ultimately participate in the final championships which are held every year in October. Timing this event requires technology that works efficiently, accurately and reliably. It's why they selected Jaguar and hired Precision Race to provide their services. So, this past weekend there were a lot of close finishes. So close that cameras had to capture the finish line photos to verify if Jaguar had the finish order correct. We're proud to say that this new version of Jaguar, with our latest AI technology, had an average accuracy of about 2 inches throughout the weekend. Again, that's 2 inches using a disposable passive chip on the bike plate, often times covered in dirt and mud. The photo below shows two bikes finishing the race. Jaguar had them about 1,000th of a second apart...and it got their finish order right! There were many instances of this accuracy, and suffice to say that ITS has once again raised the bar on engineering excellence in RFID chip timing.