Woburn firm has haptic test to gauge hockey skills

File photo: Charles Krupa/AP

Think you have the hand-eye coordinaton to be a National Hockey League star with skills comparable to Patrice Bergeron (above) of the Boston Bruins? Well, a Woburn company called SensAble Technologies Inc. has helped develop a simulation test that may prove you right - or wrong.

A provider of haptic devices and modeling solutions, SensAble said it worked with neuroscientist Lauren Sergio of York University in Toronto to develop software for force feedback devices that can "measure player finesse in a virtual hockey game."

The simulation is now being used by the NHL Central Scouting organization to provide an additional data point in the rating system that evaluates top draft picks, said SensAble, which added that several Bruins draft picks recently tried their luck on the haptic device.

SensAble said in a press release: "A hockey stick connected to a SensAble haptic device is used to measure the players’ stick-to-ice contact and smoothness as they move around a series of 3D virtual obstacles on a computer screen. This exercise generates a hand-eye coordination score, a key element that separates players with the finesse to glide, shoot, and score effortlessly from those with less efficient on-ice performance."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)