Projects
- Functional movement screening for athletes
- Wearable robotic assistant for pedestrians
- An Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury prevention brace hinge
- Eye tracking equipment grant to support behavioral research
- Effect of posture on lower extremity biomechanics during jump landing
- Automatically adjusting air cell cushion to reduce the risk of pressure sores in wheelchair users
- Tackling driver fatigue
- Using Myo EMG to predict gestures in Morra
- Advanced haptics for automation and control systems
- Knee injury prevention wearable sensors
- Wearable glove to implement “sense” in a prosthetic arm
- Quantitative method for long-term comfort assessment of automotive seating
- Smart sensors for sports performance tracking in hockey and basketball
Vision: Collaborating for human enhancement.
The goal of the Wearable Technology Innovation Center (WTIC) is to collaborate with technical experts, designers, users, educators and industry to develop the frameworks for the mechanical, electrical and control systems that are necessary for the next generation of wearable technology consumer products.
Wearable technology promises new devices that combine artificial intelligence, robotic sensing, control and feedback, mobile networking, tracking and navigation into an assistive device that augments the human body for tasks like gait and activities of daily living. Technology revolutions have automated many aspects of mechanical labor and human cognitive tasks, leading to improvements in safety, health and well-being for humanity. Industry 4.0 promises autonomous robots/vehicles that target to reduce the repetitive/mundane tasks that people do while improving productivity. Wearable technology systems are another application of these technologies that will allow development of human-computer-interface devices for a variety of at home or workplace tasks. One example is a whole-body fitness tracker, like an advanced “Fitbit”, that would provide athletes with real time biomechanics tracking for sports performance training and injury prevention.
