Initiative for Life Design Innovation (iLDi)

Health and Sports Project

The Health and Sports Project aims to develop IoT sensing technologies that allow students, faculty of Osaka University and area residents to enjoy sports activities and to live peacefully. The project also strives to create advanced data mining technologies based on PLR. To achieve these goals, we conduct two sub-projects: “Intelligent infrastructure for preventing and predicting sports injuries” and “Intelligent infrastructure for detecting early signs of heatstroke”.

Intelligent infrastructure for preventing and predicting sports injuries

In this project, we develop preventive technologies for sports traumas often seen in athletes, especially runners, such as patellar tendinitis, shin splints, Achilles tendon disorders, and planter fasciitis. These physical traumas are caused by the landing impact or the inability to properly respond to such impact. By quantitatively measuring the ground reaction force and the ability to balance from a poor position, and by analyzing the results in relation to age, gender, and athletic history, we will create training and instructional methods to improve athletes’ attitude control ability.

Intelligent infrastructure for detecting early signs of heatstroke

In this project, we use wearable devices to estimate users’ degree of exhaustion (muscle exhaustion level and the degree of heat stress). The devices will collect real-time sensor information including environmental data. Additionally, by collecting and analyzing signals such as the amount of exercise and the presence of abnormalities in users’ movements, we plan to develop a highly accurate real-time evaluation system to elucidate the relationship between the degree of exhaustion and performance in athletes.

We also research automatic detection technologies for heatstroke symptoms of elders, and develop technologies that, by using AI-assistant technologies, improve the behavior of elderly people with symptoms of early dementia.