Xsens DOT and the various applications available to the market
Xsens recently hosted the inaugural DOT developers conference, a wonderful initiative to showcase some of the most recent and exciting stories from our partners and customers. The use of human motion tracking technology has the ability to transform many industries, pushing the boundaries of human digital interaction. Importantly, the recent introduction of the Xsens DOT development platform has provided these capabilities at the fingertips of innovators and developers. This platform eliminates the majority of technical hurdles that people face, thereby enabling them to focus on their motion capture idea, allowing much faster entry into the market. This became evident in this first conference, as we saw first hand how quickly some customers were able to bring solutions to the market.
Throughout the day/evening depending on where you were in the world, we had showcases from various fields of exercise and health, clinical and rehabilitation settings, as well as ergonomics and workplace injury prevention. This along with the panel discussions of technology in sport and health, provided very powerful take home messages in the challenges we face, and how Xsens DOT can help address these issues. Xsens proprietary technology focuses around world leading sensor fusion algorithms that ensure sensor accuracy and guarantee performance in your orientation measurements. Notably, it provides an accurate method to undertake motion capture for the purpose of human movement analysis. Such analyses provide applications that span many different markets which I wanted to take a moment to reflect upon, through my experience as both a Biomechanics practitioner and researcher. In general, Biomechanics is a field that integrates components of mechanics with biology and functional anatomy, and can be applied to various disciplines and user-cases. Despite the user case, it involves similar processes and outcomes, from which wearable technology is playing a pivotal role.
Sporting applications
Biomechanics when applied to sport has the ability to optimise performance and mitigate risk of injury, as well as aid the development of innovative equipment and designs. Fundamental to undertaking these processes and achieving these outcomes requires precise measurement, which has gone hand-in-hand with the development of technologies. Recent advancements in wearable technology, has created methods of measurement previously unavailable. The potential for this is enormous, practitioners now have at their fingertips, many tools to allow them to perform simple biomechanics user-cases. When analysing human movement, it is important to take a systematic approach to understand the skill and the movements of interest. When we understand this, it allows us to make modifications, such that performance is improved, or we mitigate the risks of sustaining specific injuries.
Clinical and rehabilitation ?applications
Clinical biomechanics focuses on medical and clinical applications to support clinicians to explain causes of musculoskeletal disorders. Further it allows methods to support diagnosis, prognosis and evaluation of treatment methods and technologies. This may provide valuable knowledge to clinicians to improve clinical management of a patient. Wearable technologies have proven a valuable tool, in the use of tele-health and tele-rehabilitation, which allow the potential for patient care and analysis in both clinics and at home. Applications spanning from movement pathologies, neurological disorders, pain management, biofeedback and rehabilitation can be performed more readily. This is further advantageous during the current pandemic reducing the reliance on clinics and hospitals.
Ergonomics and workplace applications
Biomechanics in the workplace aims to optimise design, products or work processes by analysing the way people interact with their environment. To achieve this, one must understand the postures and movements undertaken by the worker. The goal of this should be to reduce human error, improve productivity, as well as improve safety and comfort to the worker. This has the potential to help companies and their employees to undertake their work activities so that performance can be improved, whilst reducing the risk of work-related injury. Wearable technology enables cost effective solutions to perform three-dimensional analysis and provide invaluable knowledge to people in occupational health and safety.
And these are just some examples of the potential applications that can be performed. The Xsens DOT has the capabilities to capture and deliver precise motion measurement, with the ability to create innovative ideas in the fastest way possible. Xsens prides itself on its passionate, professional and precision-focused team, all with world leading expertise. What I love about the team there, is they can not only help you with necessary technical support, but also collaborate and work with you to help bring your ideas to the market.