Biomotion into Data

In this article and video, researchers at Stanford’s Biomotion Lab gather data with lasers and cameras to digitally capture how humans move.  If this sounds familiar, this is the same type of technology used to capture and replicate human movement in video games.   In a recent T-Mobile commercial, you can see Charles Barkley, Dr. J, and Magic Johnson dressed up in black spandex suits with markers to record movement digitally.  This is the same idea the Stanford researchers are doing, but not quite…  The Stanford researchers are using much more precise data gathering methods because they are using this technology in medical and clinical applications.  In the article, one of the researchers explains that in video games, the companies use what looks right, but not necessarily an exact representation of what is going on.  The researchers are verifying their data to make sure it is precise and accurate.  The reason for the error-checking and verification is because the researchers intend to use the data gathered for medical purposes like studying ACL tears or the gait of obese people to predict if they are at risk for osteoarthritis.

I think this type of research is a great example of the things you can do with informatics.  Here you have researchers collecting and studying data for medical research.  Their methods clearly display divergent thinking.  Decades ago, I don’t think many people would have predicted how much we use and rely on computers and technology.  Research like this will hopefully help improve many peoples quality of life, as well as possibly increase life expectancy.