TechBrace Design Specifications

Knee injuries, specifically ACL injuries, are the most common form of injury over a variety of sports, including skiing, basketball, and soccer, and can remove athletes from training for over a year. Severity of these injuries may require different treatments, ranging from rest to surgery, but in all cases there is a resulting instability in the knee joint. This instability can lead to compromised knee positions, which can result in further injury. Currently, the most prevalent solution is strengthening exercises that build up the supporting muscles, which help train those muscles over the short period of time that the person is consciously engaged in a rehabilitation program. However, in the average person's daily life, proper knee position is not at the forefront of focus, which can lead to greater risk of improper movement.
The FlexTech TechBrace aims to minimize this risk by helping the user engage stabilizing muscles when the knee goes into these dangerous positions without direct user input, thereby strengthening the muscles and the subconscious neural pathway. The system we propose consists of three main subsystems: the sensing unit, the muscle activating electrodes, and an interactive app. First, the user calibrates the device to their custom measurements and needs, and then the brace can be used to simultaneously avoid potential reinjury while rebuilding the biological knee support system.