The analysis of movement for sports performance enhancement or injury prevention - whether clinical, research or educational - requires a fully flexible motion measurement system capable of capturing motion in all environments with minimal set-up. Vicon offers a complete range of solutions which can be designed to meet the requirements of any sports performance application.

ANY ENVIRONMENT

Systems can be installed in almost any environment to measure sports performance. Systems have been used for baseball pitching, track and field events, cross country skiing in sub-zero temperatures, golf swings and even freestyle ski jumps requiring large capture volumes. Whether indoors or outdoors, daylight or night time, winter or summer, in the desert or underwater, a Vicon solution can be customized to meet your needs.

ANY BUDGET

The modular solutions available from Vicon mean that a system can be customized to both your needs and your budget. Different software and hardware components can be combined to ensure you obtain the measurements you want, at a price that makes sense.

FLEXIBLE MEASUREMENTS

You have the choice of a marker-based system (digital optical or automatic video) or markerless system (video only). Vicon is the only company providing unparalleled flexibility by giving you the option of combining a video and optical system on one platform. In some applications, the accuracy and speed offered by using passive markers are desirable, in others the accuracy and flexibility of the markerless, video-based system is preferred. In either case, Vicon offers solutions which minimize the time and hassle required to prepare and conduct your studies. If you do need markers, Quick Suits that already have markers attached allow the athlete to get ready in seconds - if it moves it can be measured.

REAL-TIME BIOMECHANICAL FEEDBACK

See the results of biomechanical models - such as actual joint angles and forces - displayed in real time as the athlete is moving. These real-time calculations can be overlaid with historical data for comparisons. With real-time feedback, the athlete can adjust their movement patterns to immediately see the effect of the change and thus improve performance.

FLEXIBLE MODELLING

You have complete flexibility to design marker layouts, landmark locations and biomechanical models that suit the activity and the results being sought. This is especially important at sites that study many sports or that must supply research, educational and service components. The ability to customize the system to model your particular sports application is an integral part of the Vicon solution.

MULTIMEDIA RESULTS PRESENTATION

Whatever the sport, if a motion analysis session is to influence the future movement of the athlete, the results have to be presented, analyzed and understood. Vicon offers a number of unique multimedia presentation tools, including Polygon and Vicon Motus Reports. These enable you to build a multimedia report which includes a 3D representation of the athlete, results of the biomechanical model as well as observations or recommendations. Measurements from two or more different athletes can be directly compared in 3D, enabling a direct comparison of different athletes or the changes of one athlete over different trials.

Different sports require different approaches to measurement and analysis. However in order to give you an idea of the power and breadth of the Vicon approach, let’s look at two distinct capture scenarios – one which uses the markerless video-based approach through Vicon Motus and another which illustrates the marker-based digital optical technique through Vicon MX.

These are just two example scenarios. For details on other applications, contact your nearest Vicon office.

VIDEO ANALYSIS WITH Vicon Motus

There are occasions when the nature of the movement or the movement setting is such that data collection cannot be performed in an indoor, controlled laboratory environment. Whether the movement is under water, on an ice rink, or outdoors during training or competition, the Vicon Motus video system can capture and analyze any movement. As an example, we will describe how the system can be used to study a soccer  player kicking a swerving ball into a goal.

1. Setting up the system

Vicon Motus can compute 2D positions from one camera and 3D coordinates from two to sixteen cameras. Since kicking is a 3D movement and we want to take measurements from both sides of the players body, we will use four digital camcorders. The cameras are mounted on tripods around the performance area. The video can be recorded to tape or connected to a computer via FireWire cables and captured simultaneously to the hard drive.

Once the cameras are in place, a stationary calibration frame must be placed in the performance area and videotaped. The frame must cover most of the area and be comprised of 20-40 points. Portable frames are available for volumes from 8 cubic centimeters to10 cubic meters.

2. Preparing the athlete

If the lighting, background and apparel on the athlete allows, contrasting markers can be placed on the points of interest and tracked from the video images by the software. If markers are not able to be used, data can still be collected by manually digitizing the points.

3. Recording the video

As the athlete performs the kicks, the video is recorded. If the video is recorded to tape, the clips are transferred later to the computer.

4. Designing the biomechanical model

The Vicon Motus point-and-click interface allows you to set up the number of points you want to identify, angles to calculate,virtual points to compute, and specifications for the body segments to create animated stick and solid model figures.  

5. Capturing the coordinates
Once the video is stored in the computer, the clips are played back sequentially, camera-by-camera, and the system and operator track the points of interest.  Once all cameras are tracked, software reconstruction algorithms compute the 3D coordinates.

6. Data processing and display

After the locations of the 3D data points have been computed, angles, velocities, accelerations, etc. can be calculated. The Vicon Motus Report generator can display Cartesian graphs of any of the parameters and animate the display with video, stick figures and solid model figures. Animations can be converted to AVI clips and inserted into presentations and web sites, or select a moment of interest and print a full-page color report.

BOWLING ANALYSIS Click on the icon to view bowling being analyzed.

ICE HOCKEY ANALYSIS Click on the icon to view ice hockey being analyzed

DIGITAL OPTICAL ANALYSIS WITH VICON MX

For the marker-based capture process, let’s use the system to analyze the movement of an injury-prone runner on a treadmill with the aim to adjust running technique to avoid injury in the future. Using the built-in real-time bio-feedback, the system shows the runner’s biomechanical results as they run, so adjustments to the running technique can be suggested and the results immediately observed.

The process has four clearly defined steps:
 

1. Designing the biomechanical model

Vicon MX offers a specific real-time biomechanical modeling script which allows the operator to define segment properties such as joint centers and orientations with respect to marker positions. The script is designed to fit around a specific marker configuration, but can be used on any person regardless of size because the software will scale the generic model to the specific anatomy being captured.
For the treadmill example, the operator can choose to measure the lower body kinematics only, the full body or perhaps just a single arm. Example models are provided, so the operator can either modify an existing model or create a new one

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2. Setting up the measurement system

The Vicon MX cameras can be mounted on tripods, allowing full flexibility in camera placement and measurement volume size. Setting up the system and calibrating is easy, so you don’t have to have the system permanently sited – you can set the system up when you need to. By placing the cameras around the treadmill, the 3D positions of the markers worn by the athlete can be measured as the athlete runs. The infra-red light used by the cameras’ strobes is invisible to the eye and will not distract the runner.
 

3. Preparing the performer

The preparation of the runner is quick and easy – wearing shorts, t-shirt and shoes the markers are simply attached straight to the skin or on top of tight-fitting clothing. Alternatively, Quick Suits can be used where the markers are already attached to Lycra-type material, enabling the capture to begin almost immediately.
 

4. Conducting the measurements

This is easy. Start the real-time tracker and then the cameras stream marker data straight to the real-time engine which calculates the 3D positions of the markers and also the underlying biomechanics based on the custom model designed in step 1. This real-time biomechanics information can then be plumbed straight into Polygon to display the 3D model and joint angle graphs to both the runner and the coach – all of this all in real-time. Using historical data, angles can be normalized which means that changes in repetitive movements can be visualized effectively. This allows the operator to suggest changes in the running technique (e.g. “run with your knees slightly further apart”) and immediately see the changes as they happen.

Vicon Motus

Vicon Motus 2D Standard Video System. Enables movement tracking and analysis in two dimensions using a digital camcorder and PC or laptop.

Vicon Motus 2D Optical Capture System. Effortlessly collect primary angles, displacements and speeds of single plane motion by placing contrasting markers over joint centers and connecting a digital optical camera to a computer.

Vicon Motus 3D Field Collection System. A practical system to acquire 3-D coordinate data with standard digital camcorders, without any need to take computers into the field.

Vicon Motus 2D or 3D High Speed Tracking Systems. Track high speed or intricate movement in 2-D and 3-D with high-speed video cameras operating up to 10,000 frames per second.

VICON MX

MX Ultranet. The heart of the most advanced, most accurate digital optical Vicon system to date, the MX Ultranet HD is the central system unit, coordinating the operation of up to 244 cameras in a single system and an unlimited number by combining two or more systems. As well as enabling you to connect up to 244 cameras it can also synchronize data from force plates, EMG, foot switches and other 3rd party measurement devices.

MX Cameras.There are three MX cameras available: MX-F40, MX-F20 and MX-3+.  The camera number corresponds to its resolution - the MX-3+ has 0.3 million pixels, the MX-F20 has 2 million and the MX-F40 no less than 4 million pixels. Regardless of the resolution, they all capture the marker images using grayscale technology, ensuring maximum accuracy. The cameras also has on-board processing that calculates marker centres - or, if you choose, all the gray-scale marker images can be sent to the processing PC.

Vicon Nexus . Easy to use, single click capture application, used to drive the Vicon MX hardware. It includes Vicon MX’s integrated data management system, Eclipse. Supported by all the MX applications, Eclipse enables the user to easily locate, access and manipulate all the data files associated with an experiment or trial – all the 3D data, force plate data, patient notes and so on. Everything under one management structure, so you don’t have to spend time looking for it.

BodyBuilder. Flexible kinematic and kinetic modeling tool enabling the creation of completely custom models through its built-in, optimized scripting system, BodyLanguage

Plug-in Modeler. Plugs into MX Workstation to enable you to automatically process captured data through any custom model created in BodyBuilder.

OLGA. Innovative technique to calculate joint centers and segment orientations more accurately and consistently by optimizing measured movement across the entire trial.

External System Plug-ins. A wide variety of plug-ins is available for Vicon, including data exporters for LifeModeler and SIMM.

DV Video. Simply and inexpensively capture digital video (DV) movies synchronized with Vicon MX 3D data, all set up and controlled through MX Workstation capture software.

PECS. Specifically designed for researchers who wish to incorporate their own export or processing algorithms into the automated workflow, the PECS plug-in allows full read/write access to the gait data from third-party applications, such as MatLab and Microsoft Excel.