Bio-feedback on exercise devices

With the Sportssensor, any movement can be easily tracked and logged using the accelerometer and gyroscope. Activity trackers already exist for placing on the body, but fewer exist that tracks the movement of exercise equipment. Perhaps new ideas are waiting to be explored by placing the Sportssensor on existing exercise equipment.

Most activity trackers only count amount of energy used (like step counting e.g.), but bio-feedback on the quality of the activity may be much more valuable for individuals learning new movements, or patients re-learning motor patterns during rehab.

Example of device

• Hula hooping is a good tool to prevent hip injuries, and tracking the small improvements of a new user and giving cues on how to improve via bio-feedback may be a great advantage over the normal way of learning how to hula hoop.
• Exercize machines like stationary bicycles, rowing machines, bench presses, dumbbells or just the body itself.
• Rehabilitive training devices, like Stabilizer, EpiNo and PEP flute

Example of goals

• Obtain, store and analyze data
• Parameterize data ... reduce data to relevant key indicators like:
  • Number of repetitions
  • Force
  • Expended energy
  • Many many other parameters can be relevant
• Visualize data in meaningful ways, during or after training
• Verify methods through other means, e.g. compare to 3D tracking, EMG or similar

ROS

The Training Technology Lab is using ROS (Robotic Operating System) to gather data from all devices in the lab, to log and display it in various ways. An interface to display the bio-feedback from a Sportssensor could easily be developed on this system for prototyping.