Well, my last blog entry hinted at work that I was doing for AXAnalyst and AXAnalyst+Video, now the new versions are out and I can talk about all of the mystery.

The "800-pound-elephant" in the room was adding full support for GPS devices, especially those from a competitor of ours, who now seems to have disappeared from the face of the Earth. Some of their most recent devices that combined GPS and accelerometers were actually pretty decent (20Hz accelerometer and 20Hz GPS).

One of the things that I'm realizing after investigating the competition is that most devices come with software that gives you the data (data acquisition) but leaves it up to you to determine the whys and hows of what that data actually means (data analysis). AXAnalyst goes that extra step beyond data acquisition and gives you an analysis of the data, presented in a way that permits you to quickly understand what happened, and basically how to fix it.

We'll be revising our web pages for AXAnalyst and AXAnalyst+Video to give more information about what the programs actually do and how they differ from the standard data acquisition packages provided with all of the devices. We're also investigating options on finding new hardware that we've validated to work with AXAnalyst and don't require a degree in electronics to use. There's only one thing I hate more than a useless device, and that is a device that is a "gadget" -- one that could tell you more (or any) information only if you "mess around" with it some more and massage the data. That takes time!