The Olympic Games are all about pushing the boundaries of human performance. In preparation for the 2024 Games in Paris, some athletes used, amongst other things, a brand new technology developed at MIT.nano.
The technology was developed by Striv (pronounced “strive”), a startup whose founder gained access to MIT.nano's cutting-edge labs and manufacturing facilities as a part of the START.nano accelerator program. Striv's tactile sensor technology suits into the insoles of shoes and, when combined with algorithms that process that tactile data, can precisely track force, motion and form. Runners resembling U.S. marathoner Clayton Young, Jamaican track and field Olympian Damar Forbes and former Olympic marathoner Jake Riley have tried Striv's device.
“I'm excited concerning the potential of Striv technology,” says Riley. “It's poised to revolutionize the way in which we train and stop injuries. After testing the sensors and seeing the information firsthand, I'm convinced of its value.”
For Striv founder Axl Chen, the 2024 Games are the proper opportunity to point out that the product may help athletes at the very best level. But Chen also believes that their product may help many non-Olympians.
“We think the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris will likely be a extremely interesting opportunity for us to check the product with the athletes training for it,” says Chen. “After that, we’ll offer it to most of the people so that everybody gets the identical support and training advice as skilled athletes.”
Put yourself in another person’s shoes
Chen was working in a robotics lab at Tsinghua University in China when he began using tactile sensors. Over the following two years, he experimented with ways to make the sensors more flexible and inexpensive.
“I feel quite a lot of people have already checked out vision and language, but tactile perception as a option to perceive the world seemed more open to me,” says Chen. “I believed tactile sensors and AI could lead on to powerful latest products.”
The first area Striv entered was virtual reality (VR) gaming. The company developed a shoe with embedded sensors that would capture the user's body movements in real time by combining the sensor data with traditional VR hand controls. Striv even sold around 300 pairs of its shoes to interested customers world wide.
Companies within the medical, robotics and automotive sectors have also shown interest in Striv, which is each a blessing and a curse, as startups should give attention to a particular customer early on.
Chen says joining the START.nano program in 2023 was a turning point for the corporate.
“I didn't really apply for anything,” says Chen. “I'm really excited by this technology and knew it could be very helpful to do research at MIT and advance this technology.”
Since then, Chen has used MIT's advanced nanofabrication equipment, labs and expertise to develop and prototype various designs. This has included working in MIT.nano's Immersion Lab, which has precise motion capture devices and other sensing technologies, resembling measurements of VO2 uptake and detailed force evaluation of runners' strides on a treadmill.
Striv's team also received support from the MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) and is an element of the MIT Industrial Liaison Program's Startup Exchange program, which helped the team give attention to athletes as a beachhead marketplace for their technology.
“It's remarkable that MIT supports us so strongly,” Chen says. “We're often asked why they do that (for non-students), and we are saying MIT is committed to pushing the technology forward.”
Striv's sensor solution consists of two layers of flexible electrodes with a fabric in between that may produce different electrical properties depending on the force it’s subjected to. This material is the guts of Chen's research at MIT.nano: He is attempting to make it more durable and precise by adding nanostructures and other tweaks.
Striv can also be developing AI algorithms that use sensor data to attract conclusions concerning the movement of your entire body.
“We can quantify the force they exert on the bottom and the efficiency of their movements,” explains Chen. “We can see in the event that they're leaning too far forward or their knees are too high. That might be very helpful in determining whether or not they're making progress.”
Technology for the masses
When Chen began interviewing runners, he knew Striv could help them.
“The alternatives for athletes are either going to a really expensive biomechanics lab or using a wearable device that may measure heart rate but doesn't provide any insight into performance,” Chen explains. “For example, for those who're running, what's your form? How are you able to improve it? Runners are really excited by their form. They're excited by how high they lift their knees, how high they jump, and the way much force they exert on the bottom.”
Striv has tested its product with about 50 skilled athletes to this point and worked with Young within the lead-up to the Olympics. Chen also plans to assist recreational runners.
“We wish to bring this to serious runners who aren’t professionals,” says Chen. “I do know quite a lot of people in Boston who run every single day. That's where we're going next.”
Chen believes that as the corporate grows and collects more data, Striv will have the opportunity to offer personalized plans to enhance performance and stop injuries in a wide range of different activities.
“We've spoken to quite a lot of coaches and we predict there's potential to bring this into quite a lot of different sports,” says Chen. “Golfers, hikers, tennis players, cyclists, skiers and snowboarders. We think this could possibly be really useful for all of them.”
