Devices & Diagnostics

“Multi-axis” sensors can improve golf swings and personalize sports medicine

Advances in sensor technology that have made systems smaller, more portable and more powerful hold […]

Advances in sensor technology that have made systems smaller, more portable and more powerful hold potential for big advances in sports medicine.

Couple those technological advances with growing interest in using technology to improve athletes’ training and performance, and you’ve got a big market for the use of sensors and micro-electro mechanical systems, or MEMS, in sports, said Louis Ross, CEO of Virtus Advanced Sensors. Ross was speaking at the Biomedical MEMS and Sensor 2012 conference in the Cleveland area.

For the sensors and MEMS industry, “the killer app is sports,” Ross said.

Similar to the life sciences industry, sensors and MEMS can help improve outcomes in sports medicine primarily through the real-time monitoring and logging of health statistics, enabling a more “personalized” type of treatment. Sensors and MEMS can be used to collect a wide variety of data, including impact, force, motion and temperature, for example.

The big data and cloud computing movements are likely to accelerate sports and health applications of sensors and MEMS, according to Ross.

Also important is the rise of “multiaxis devices.” That is, devices that use both accelerometers and gyroscopes to achieve more accurate and comprehensive data collection.

“The key enabler for sports applications will be the introduction of combo sensors integrating accelerometer and gyroscope functionality to be paired with other devices,” Ross said.

Here are a few real-world examples Ross gave of sports medicine and performance devices that use MEMS and sensors:

  • The K-Vest, which uses sensors to analyze a golfer’s swing to diagnose faults and optimize movement
  • An intelligent mouth guard being developed by Cleveland Clinic that uses sensors to detect brain injuries and concussions
  • A cancer-detecting “smart bra” that collects data about the wearer’s breasts to produce a computer-generated image

[Image from KVest]

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