Translogic: How BMW is helping long jumpers leap farther

You'd think the only partnership between BMW and Olympic athletes would come in sales and marketing. Make some appearances, shake some hands and sign a few autographs, appear in TV commercials and other advertising – that sort of stuff. But BMW's commitment to the U.S. Olympic Team stretches further than glad-handing and writing checks, as we see in this week's episode of Translogic.

Our sister site went behind the scenes at the USOC Training Center in Chula Vista, California, where BMW is using machine vision technology to help long jumpers. Similar to what BMW is developing for vehicular active safety systems, the camera system that tracks long jumpers can determine velocity in both vertical and horizontal planes by tracking the runner in three dimensions.

BMW's experimental system installed in a 5 Series does the same thing, but instead of focusing on long jumpers, it's on the lookout for pedestrians. BMW says future versions of the system would allow the car to take action to prevent pedestrian collisions.

Scroll down to watch the full episode.