ESA BIC Ireland, which is led by Tyndall National Institute, one of 32 ESA BICs operating across 23 ESA member states, has announced that KineMo has been chosen as the latest company to join its incubation programme.
KineMo’s AI-powered platform accurately tracks and quantifies an individual’s whole-body kinematics (the motion and angles of joints during exercise) from any single camera device, with no markers, wearables, or multi-camera calibration needed.
Demonstrated biomechanics lab-level accuracy
During the evaluation and selection process, the technology demonstrated biomechanics lab-level accuracy in measuring joint angles during exercise while retaining the simplicity and scalability of recording with any single camera device.
Ciaran Simms, KineMo and Jonathan Scott, ESA.
Under the partnership, KineMo will collaborate with specialists in ESA’s Astronaut Training Centre near Cologne, Germany, to deploy and fine-tune its platform in the following use cases:
- Pre-mission astronaut training: evaluating and screening movement competency during training and injury-prevention protocols;
- In-flight exercise: monitoring technique and movement competency on resistance devices designed for micro gravity;
- Post-mission rehabilitation: tracking recovery of movement, range of motion and coordination during rehabilitation following long-duration spaceflight.
Leo Peyton, co-founder of KineMo, said: “Our mission has always been to make peer-reviewed, biomechanically meaningful, accurate, and consistent kinematic insights accessible anywhere.
"Partnering with ESA allows us to push the boundaries of that vision even further, not only for ‘occupational athletes’ like astronauts, military personnel, or first responders, but also by bringing these insights back to coaches, physiotherapists, and clinicians working across all levels of sport, performance, fitness, and healthcare.”
Peter Finnegan, ESA BIC Ireland manager, said: “KineMo is at the forefront of developing cutting edge research into a real-world solution that has significant scaling potential across multiple applications. Deep tech companies of this kind are an integral component of Ireland’s expanding space ecosystem. We look forward to supporting the company on its ESA BIC journey over the next two years.”
Jonathan Scott, mission officer at MEDES – Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology, medical projects and technology team lead, ESA Space Medicine Office, said: “The ESA Space Medicine Team is delighted to collaborate with KineMo to explore the potential of single camera motion tracking technology for the resource-efficient assessment of pre, in and post-mission astronaut movement patterns.”