SMART GLOVE USAGE POSSIBILITY FOR BASKETBALL TRAINING: PROOF OF CONCEPT

Nowadays, basketball is one of the most entertaining and popular sports. In the last years, the number of people that are dedicating themselves to basketball has grown rapidly. The increasing number of sportsmen defines the increasing demand to monitor and analyse their performance, hereby granting the possibility to review and evaluate mistakes made within different game phases, which, in turn, would be useful for future training. The present research is the first step to develop a wireless system (Smart Basketball Glove (SBG)) for basketball shot analysis and training. SBG system is based on knitted tension and pressure sensors that were already successfully used in Smart Socks and Smart Shirt applications. These sensors, while embedded into the proposed system’s textile part, showed high tactile sensitivity and speed of response and, therefore, demonstrates potential abilities to analyse the wrist and fingers movement and estimate the forces with which fingers interact with the ball during basketball shot. Necessary requirements for data acquisition and transition device of SBG are formulated for further system’s development as well.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNRECOGNIZED: SMART TEXTILE SIGNAL CLUSTERING BY SELF-ORGANIZING MAP

The present article is a series of publications dedicated to the research of smart fabric sensors integrated into socks and is also part of the project aimed at developing the measuring system based on smart fabric supplied with sensors and intellectual data processing. The aim of the article is to perform a practical study on the application of Self-Organizing Map to smart textile signal clustering. Within the framework of the research, different approaches to the organization of network training are explored. A method for encoding an input pattern is also proposed. It has been established that the network is able to recognize the signal as a good step, a bad step, and an unrecognized step. The primary classification allows further selecting specific algorithms for a detailed analysis of good steps and bad steps. The detailed analysis of bad steps is the key to solving the problem of revealing of an athlete’s special type of fatigue, leading to injuries

Improving the recovery of patients with subacromial pain syndrome with the daid smart textile shirt

Funding Information: Funding: This work has been supported by the European Regional Development Fund within the Activity 1.1.1.2 “Post‐doctoral Research Aid” of the Specific Aid Objective 1.1.1 “To increase the research and innovative capacity of scientific institutions of Latvia and the ability to attract external financing, investing in human resources and infrastructure” of the Operational Program “Growth and Employment” (No. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/153). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Wearable technologies provide many possibilities for applications in medicine, and especially in physiotherapy, where tracking and evaluation of body motion are of utmost importance. Despite the existence of multiple smart garments produced for applications in physiotherapy, there is limited information available on the actual impact of these technologies on the clinical outcomes. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the Double Aid (DAid) smart shirt, a purely textile‐based system, on the training process of patients with subacromial pain syndrome. A randomized controlled trial was performed where patients with subacromial pain syndrome had to perform the assigned training exercises while employing the DAid smart shirt system. The core point of each exercise was to perform a movement while holding the shoulders stationary. The smart shirt was designed to sense even slight shoulder motion thus providing the patient with feedback on the accuracy of the motion, and allowing the patient to adjust the movement. The appropriate muscles should be strengthened through an increased effort to control the shoulder motion. The recovery of patients using the feedback system at the end of the treatment was compared to that of a reference group through standardized tests—the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand score (DASH score), Closed Kinetic Chain Upper Extremity Stability test (CKCUES test), and internal/external rotation ratio. The test group that used the DAid system demonstrated significantly better results of the performed tests for all applied outcome measures compared to the reference group (p <0.001). An overall positive impact on the patient recovery was observed from the DAid smart shirt system when applied for rehabilitation training of patients with subacromial pain syndrome.Peer reviewe

More on the Narrowing of Impact Broadened Radio Recombination Lines at High Principal Quantum Number

Recently Alexander and Gulyaev have suggested that the apparent decrease in impact broadening of radio recombination lines seen at high principal quantum number n may be a product of the data reduction process, possibly resulting from the presence of noise on the telescope spectra that is not present on the calculated comparison spectra. This is an interesting proposal. However, there are serious problems with their analysis that need to be pointed out. Perhaps the most important of these is the fact that for principal quantum numbers below n = 200, where the widths are not in question, their processed generated profile widths do not fit the widths of the processed lines obtained at the telescope. After processing, the halfwidths of the generated and telescope profiles must agree below n = 200 if we are to believe that the processed generated linewidths above n = 200 are meaningful. Theirs do not. Furthermore, we find that after applying the linewidth reduction factors found by Alexander and Gulyaev for their noise added profiles to our generated profiles to simulate their noise adding effect, the processed widths we obtain still do not come close to explaining the narrowing seen in the telescope lines for n values in the range 200 < n < 250. It is concluded that what is needed to solve this mystery is a completely new approach using a different observing technique instead of simply a further manipulation of the frequency-switched data.Comment: Six pages with 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Knitted Resistive Fabric: Properties and Applications

The presented paper relates to the field of “smart textiles”. A new type of knitted strain sensing elements (knitted resistive fabric (KRF)) which can be integrated in the smart garment was developed. KRF was produced from conductive resistive, nonconductive isolating and nonconductive elastomeric yarns. Elastomeric yarn was used as the base yarn and was knitted within the whole fabric, but isolating and resistive yarns (functional yarns) were used as face yarns and knitted in specific sequence. Electrical model of KRF is proposed to describe the behavior of sensing element. The developed KRF has high sensitivity to strain deformation and can be used as local strain sensor or distributed resistive sensing field to control deformation of human body parts, joint motion, respiration etc

Knitted Bandages for Animal Care and their Production Technology

A new type of knitted bandages for wound cover foranimals is proposed. Properties of different knitted stitches arecompared and tested to provide good elasticity and breathabilityof bandage and the possibility to cut any necessary length andopenings in it. The Technology of the production of the proposedbandages is developed