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April 2002

Lee E. Johnson

Innovative Sports Training (IST), Chicago, has been involved in the research and application of motion capture technology since 1993. Rehab Management spoke with Lee E. Johnson, president, about this technology, and the industry in general.
Q: Based on your experience in the industry, how has sports rehabilitation changed over the past decade or so?
A: I have noticed, and this includes clinicians, athletic trainers, physical therapists, and even golf teachers, that the sophistication level and the use of technology have changed dramatically. It was almost impossible when we started in 1993 to talk to people about computers, motion capture equipment, and balance equipment in clinical and performance-enhancement applications. This has changed significantly.

Q: How is new technology affecting the motion capture business?
A: There has been a definite evolution. Many people think about motion capture in the context of cameras. Initially, all you had was a video image, which progressed to the point where video was used to capture markers in 3-D space. That then allowed you to quantify, very accurately, how people’s position or change in position occurred. The next big step was the introduction of magnetic tracking, which greatly simplified its use in clinical applications. For example, with video, you needed six to eight cameras to avoid losing markers and consequently the movement of people through space. With magnetic trackers, you no longer need to have line of sight, so you do not have lost markers, when you are digitizing in postprocessing. All that can now be done in real time. In a clinical setting, we can attach position trackers on a subject and are able to do full range of motion for all body segments in a matter of minutes. Motion capture has become very easy to use, making it possible to use more sophisticated techniques in a clinical setting, where before they were confined to a research setting.

Q: How does motion capture help golfers?
A: Because it can measure what you do very accurately in real time, it gives you the opportunity to quickly show people how their golf swing differs from somebody else in a very quantifiable, objective way. On the one hand, you can give golfers an intellectual understanding of what they are doing with their swing. But the real leap comes when you now can assist them in feeling a difference in swing by using biofeedback. Because our magnetic trackers can measure in real time (140 times per second), that means I can tell you when you are not in the correct position. As an example, when golfers get to the proper degree of rotation in the swing, we give them a biofeedback tone.

Q: What does the future hold for Innovative Sports Training?
A: Up until now, we have focused on the research community, with products in a number of research institutions. The reason for that has been to develop an understanding of what is being taught in schools so we can apply those studies to real clinical problems. However, this year, we will be focusing on using the data from these studies so we can aid therapists in applying and

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