[The Engineer]
Britain’s Olympic runners now have the country’s first three-dimensional motion analysis facility at their disposal.
Run3D is a private biomechanics service at the Oxford Gait Laboratory — a joint initiative by Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.
The initial aim of Run3D will be to identify subtle idiosyncrasies in technique that are the root cause of injuries, but it could also act as a preventative tool to minimise the chance of a person developing an injury in the first place.
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The current video analysis facilities available to runners only record in two dimensions and are not sensitive to the subtle biomechanical problems that might lead to injuries.
With the Run3D facility, a physiotherapist attaches small reflective markers to the lower body. As the individual runs on a treadmill, 12 infrared cameras record the 3D positions of each marker 200 times a second to create a biomechanical model.
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Read the full story here: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/medical-and-healthcare/news/3d-motion-analysis-facility-could-help-prevent-injuries/1011305.article