Proten

PROTEN is an interactive rehabilitation device that assists tennis athletes in recovering from a shoulder injury. The product consists of: a double shoulder brace, a specialised racket and a mobile app. This was completed in collaboration with the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS), as a university project. You can read the Project Brief here and Design Specification Report here.

Tennis is a popular world-wide sport, attracting huge crowds to tournaments. Athletes follow rigorous schedules to ensure they can perform their best; however, the human body does not always comply with the schedule. Shoulder injuries are one of the most common injuries sustained by players, often due to incorrect technique or inadequate muscle ability. Athletes face extended periods of time away from playing and training, with approximately 20% of their potential training time lost when an injury occurs, affecting their ability to perform at their best.

During rehabilitation, they perform traditional stretches as instructed by their physio. However, athletes often find this boring or forget how to do a stretch, causing them to discontinue their exercises, which extends their recovery time. When they do complete their rehab exercises, often they don’t truly know if they are doing the exercise correctly (putting them at risk of further injury) or if they are improving.

Therefore it was identified that athletes who have sustained a shoulder injury from playing tennis require a device that engages them in completing rehabilitation exercises and provides them with knowledge of their performance.

PROTEN aims to be an interactive device that assists and engages tennis athletes who are rehabilitating a shoulder injury.

PROTEN aims to:

• Track and monitor the range of movement in the shoulder.

• Support the athlete’s wellbeing by training and strengthening their muscles correctly.

• Facilitate remote interaction of data through the mobile app.

Proten will support the user in training and strengthening the correct shoulder muscles. This will reduce the chance of the user becoming injured again in the future.

The brace tracks the athlete’s range of movement in their shoulder, using stretch sensors across the arm. Feedback is provided via LEDs, a Piezo and Vibration motors, according to if they are moving safely or are at risk of (further) injury.

Data on the angle to which the athlete can stretch to will be collected during use, which can be viewed and shared via the mobile app. The app with also allow the athlete or their physio to adjust their rehabilitation exercises as required.

The App

Model app pages were designed and presented using an app simulator. Below are the title/loading page, home page, profile page to view angle settings, performance page for statistics, and stretches showing unlocked activities.

Presentation

As well as presenting Proten to my class colleagues and invited guests, I was honoured to be chosen to display my project at a QUT International Student Event, which showcased design projects to potential international students. The following year, I was also invited to present to the following year’s cohort as an exemplar project, which was a great opportunity to meet more aspiring designers and inspire them as to what is possible.