THE 12 BIGGEST BREAKTHROUGHS IN SPORTS TECHNOLOGY STORY LIBRARY by Janet Slingerland
1 Motion Capture Looks at Human Movement A scientist places markers on an athlete’s body The markers look like small disks or marbles They mark joints and other key body parts The athlete goes through their motions Special cameras capture their body movements Computer software re creates the athlete as a figure on a screen This is motion capture Scientists called biomechanists study these figures They look for ways athletes can change the ways they move These changes may improve performance They may prevent injury Usually they do both Motion capture started in the late 1800s Étienne-Jules Marey was a French scientist He was also a chronophotographer This is a person who captures movement in still pictures Marey went one step further He captured all the motions 44
in one move like jumping on a single picture He designed a special high-speed camera to do this He was also the first scientist to use markers He placed reflective strips on a person wearing a black suit This helped him track the movement of joints and bones The movement of pole vaulting photographed by Étienne-Jules Marey 12 Images per second Marey’s camera captured Scientists first started capturing human motion in the 1800s Early motion capture studied general movement Motion capture helps athletes train better faster and with less injury Marey’s work helped scientists understand how the human body moved in general Now scientists can look at an individual athlete’s movements They help athletes learn faster and perform better Motion capture is moving into a new era It is being applied to just about every sport It is no longer used only by elite athletes Recreational athletes can see and improve their golf swing baseball pitch or other movement 55
