The majority of companies have created sensor-based clothing to help athletes improve their performance and prevent injuries. Heddoko is one such company providing continuous feedback about performance for coaching and injury prevention via a mobile app and in 3D.
Heddoko uses textile-embedded sensors to continuously monitor body movement and provide real-time 3D coaching. This smart compression garment, through personalized movement screening, can help reduce wearer’s risk of injury as it identifies movement dysfunction, increases user’s awareness of their own body, and provides inputs on performance improvement and enhancements. The mobile app, which models 3D movements, also keeps track of the progress, which can be used by coaches and athletes alike for improving performance. To calibrate the system, the user needs to input their profile including prior injuries. It captures metrics like joint angles, velocity, and acceleration and analyzes the information to provide meaningful feedback to the user. It identifies disproportionate and poor movements and pinpoints mobility and stability issues that could lead to injuries. Other features include pre-loaded training routines, keep track of progress, measures program completion rates, and create targets. The fabric is breathable and machine washable despite embedded sensors. These sensors communicate to a core unit that transmits data via low energy Bluetooth. There is a web-based dashboard to overall management.
Options like Heddoko smart clothing helps both athletes and coaches for performance management and improvements as well as injury prevention. There are multiple other solutions available to do pretty much the same things but each has a slightly different approach. Success of these apparel will depend on what really works for the user/athlete.
