Don't we all just love the Wii?
The Nintendo Wii revolutionized gaming, broke the barrier between the rudimentary console gaming and the video-game player, and basically left all existing gaming consoles in the dust. So I can go on and on about how great the Wii is (though not all the games are really that impressive “yet”), but the secret relies not on the game designers but on a neat 25$ wireless controller that situates the gamer IN the game.
How so? Slap in a few buttons, a 3D-Axis accelerometer, a bluetooth transmitter and an infrared camera and a little bit of engineering magic and you have a controller that translates your motion directly onto the screen. May it be your characters movements while playing golf, tennis, bowling, fishing, being Mario for an hour or trying to change into SuperSaiyan3 as Son Goku.
Then came the Wii Fit, promising to combine fitness and fun in one nifty little console, offering a convenient all-in-one trainer in a box with a variety of training modes such as YOGA, BALANCE GAMES, STRENGTH TRAINGING and AEROBICS-definitely a brilliant gaming innovation.
But even before the Wii Fit came out, a Research Team of the Ateneo Innovations Center has already conceptualized the Wii PowerTrainer. And by, early February of 2008, their Wii-based prototype called the Insight PowerTrainer was finalized.
“While the guys at Nintendo were still playing, we realized the Wii technology could be much more useful”, one of the innovators said. The Insight PowerTrainer is designed as mainly a Strength Training and Performace Enhancing Tool for Sport and also a medical rehabilitation tool. This caters to athletes who want to perform better, athletes recovering from injury, stroke patients regaining control and function of their bodies and the everyday health-conscious individual.
How does it work?
Instead of streaming real-time acceleromter output wirelessly into the Wii gaming console, these innovators streamed this precious data (using open source software) into a PC and analyzed it with their very own diagnosis and analysis software.
“It's really simple, the Wiimote provided the cheapest and easiest method of analyzing motion, all we had to do was make it talk to a PC”, one of the creators said.
The prototype software developed was built around various experiments varying from data taken from simple limb motions, torso motion, wiimote submerged in water while recording disturbances in the water, boxing and a lot more. (email for more details)
But the algorithms used focused on weightlifting and powerlifting movements since these are the most widely used performance enhancing exercises for almost all sports (except chess). Testing the limits of the wiimote and of the human body's performance is paramount on developing a trainer.
So what's in the box?
1. Detect the signs of fatigue, Instability in the joints during the lift, preventing injury by predicting failure even before it happens!
2. Monitor and Correct Flaws in Lifting Form, Analyze and Improve Technique, Maximize efficiency by analyzing path travelled by the bar in a motion, Improve symmetry of compound movements,
3. Train for Strength, Speed, Power---create a program for your personal limitations and exceed your goals!
The best training effect is achieved when both fast twitch and slow twitch muscles are used at their fullest potential. The only way to achieve this is the find that “sweet spot”, that is the maximum resistance you can go against executed in the shortest amount of time.
Take away guess-work from creating the perfect program! Prevent getting injured by lifting more than you have to. Customize your routines for peak endurance, peak power outputs, a mix of both or just brute strength!
Find the human body's weaknesses --- Sticking Points!
In weightlifting, sticking points are defined as biomechanically disadvantaged positions for a lifter executing a certain motion or lift. It's like when you're trying to push a refrigerator and at some point no matter how hard you push it just won't move anymore.
The Ateneo Innovations Center is proud to claim to being the first one to quantify, model and analyze the sticking point using wireless 3D-axis accelerometers, and as the first ever to do a study on this phenomenon!
So what's the point with the sticking point?
Harnessing real-time data to improve performance by identifying the most minute indications of weakness in the human body is one thing, but now that we can see what the most trained eye can't even imagine. We can help people with disabilities, injuries or recovering patients to “fine-tune” their therapy and monitor actual improvement overtime! “The point is, it;s time to stop playing and start helping people get better.”