Martial arts competitions can be a little confusing to the untrained eye. The scoring systems simply favour landed hits, no matter how slight or imperceptible. During a recent exhibition, the Korea Taekwondo Association demonstrated a brand new piece of technology designed to make the sport more spectator-friendly, essentially turning competition into a real-world fighting game.

The system features brand new wearable sensors that measure the striking power of every attack and deduct from the fighters’ health bars appropriately, very much like a fighting game. Both competitors start out with 100 health points, and the first to drop the opponent to 0 is the winner. Everything is accompanied by sound effects and larger-than-life graphics. The result is something that looks like a combination of Olympic sport and Tekkencompetition—without the bears and Jaguar-masked wrestlers, of course.

 

Source: Tekken-Style Health Bars Make Watching Taekwondo So Much Better | Kotaku Australia