Have you ever imagined being able to compare your movements to those of some of sport’s greatest athletes? Well now you can.
Xsens, a creator of 3D motion tracking technology and products, has a motion capture system, MVN BIOMECH, that allows athletes and coaches to study their movement and get more insight on the physical aspects of their training. It also allows them to compare their movement to that of some of the world’s top athletes.
The 3D motion capture system is easy to use and can be setup quickly. It is a wireless system that consists of 17 inertial motion trackers for full-body human motion measurements, with each measuring a specific part of the body. Having it be wireless allows for the product to be used anywhere.
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According to Hein Beute, Xsens’ product manager, “The motion tracker data is combined with a biomechanical model to give real-time data including joint angles, center of mass and segment kinematics.”
The data is given instantly and can be used in leading analysis software such as C-Motion’s Visual 3D. It gives reports that can be used to assess injuries, training routines and performance goals.
One example of a study done with MVN Biomech was at the University of Ljubljana by Professor Matej Supej. Professor Supej used the system to analyze ski jumpers.
“Until now it was not possible to measure the full-body data of the entire jump. There was no setup capable of that. By using the wireless Xsens system he could accomplish this for the first time ever,” said Beute.
Other athletes that have used the system include Boston Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas, Blue Jays’ Josh Donaldson and Detroit Tigers’ Migeuel Cabrera. They were some of the athletes featured on ESPN’s Sport Science, where MVN BIOMECH was used to to analyze the specific skills of many atheletes.
The MVN BIOMECH is mostly sold to Universities, sports trainers, coaches, and research Institutes. Many top Universities use the system, including English Institute of Sport, University of Southern California, and University of Michigan.
“Our primary focus for the future will be on coaches and sport analysts. We expect there is already a lot of interest from the Olympic teams for the system. Next to the sport science market we have a strong focus on ergonomic applications. The combination with leading analysis software packages as Visual 3D makes it easy for trainers and coaches to use the data to enhance the performance and to prevent injuries,” said Beute.
Xsens in developing new systems, and have several new product releases coming in 2016. Some of those releases are aimed at capturing sports motions like cycling, skiing and running.
“We are also exploring new partnerships to provide a full analysis tool, our partnership with C-Motion is a good example of this,” said Beute.