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Creative Technologies student targets sports injuries
Master of Creative Technologies student, Arien Hielkema, has focused his research on helping those with sports related injuries. 'Athletes, both professional and recreational, are likely to have to deal with injury recovery at some point in their sporting careers. If mismanaged, lack of motivation can work against the rehabilitation process, resulting in poor adherence to prescribed exercises', says Arien. His project is working towards the development of a smart knee brace that will be used to explore ways of movement correction with the intention of increasing adherence and recovery times, thereby helping athletes get back into sport faster and stronger than before.
Working with TDL Senior Technician, Gordon Fraser, Arien says the knitted brace utilises electro-conductive yarn, which allows for a completely integrated and lightweight design. Inflexible wiring and unnecessary components make way for soft flexible sensors that are incorporated into the brace, which are used to capture the individual’s movement. The use of smart fabric eliminates the majority of bulky hard circuitry commonly used for this type of application. The brace can be personally calibrated to an individual athlete’s recovery profile.
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