Breath-Jockey: Development and Feasibility Assessment of a Wearable System for Respiratory Rate and Kinematic Parameter Estimation for Gallop Athletes

Abstract

In recent years, wearable devices for physiological parameter monitoring in sports and physical activities have been gaining momentum. In particular, some studies have focused their attention on using available commercial monitoring systems mainly on horses during training sessions or competitions. Only a few studies have focused on the jockey’s physiological and kinematic parameters. Although at a glance, it seems jockeys do not make a lot of effort during riding, it is quite the opposite. Indeed, especially during competitions, they profuse a short but high intensity effort. To this extend, we propose a wearable system integrating conductive textiles and an M-IMU to simultaneously monitor the respiratory rate (RR) and kinematic parameters of the riding activity. Firstly, we tested the developed wearable system on a healthy volunteer mimicking the typical riding movements of jockeys and compared the performances with a reference instrument. Lastly, we tested the system on two gallop jockeys during the “137∘ Derby Italiano di Galoppo”. The proposed system is able to track both the RR and the kinematic parameters during the various phases of the competition both at rest and during the race.

Plant-Wear: A Multi-Sensor Plant Wearable Platform for Growth and Microclimate Monitoring

“…Some of the literature available studies have proposed multi-sensor platforms for monitoring plant growth and the surrounding microclimate simultaneously. However, most of these are characterized by a high-priced and sophisticated fabrication process in conjunction with, in some cases, high-cost of read out electronics, and uneasy customizability [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”

Application of the Two-Dimensional Entropy Measures in the Infrared Thermography-Based Detection of Rider: Horse Bodyweight Ratio in Horseback Riding

“…With the introduction of data processing [22][23][24][25][26], the development of technology for biometric measurements [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] and its introduction to equine medicine and care, there is a growing need to develop innovations that support the diagnosis of the rider:horse bodyweight ratio. According to the World Horse Welfare (WHW) and the British Equestrian Federation (BEF), riders should have the possibility to assess if they represent an appropriate bodyweight concerning their horse's size; thus, every effort should be made to develop innovative assessment methods for the rider-horse fit [17].…”

“…The use of mathematical classification [22,23] and machine learning [24][25][26][27] methods constitute a new direction in the development of monitoring equine physiology [22,24] and the reaction of the horse's organism to exercise loads [23,25] and diseases [26,27]. In the field of non-invasive horse monitoring, there is progress in the use of biometric devices, including inertial measurement units (IMU) to monitor motion speed [24], motion caption [28], and breath-jockey to assess the respiratory rate and kinematic parameters of performance horses [29], single inertial sensor (SIS) for the evaluation of the neuromusculoskeletal system of performance horses [30,31], and infrared thermography (IRT) for quantification of the radiant energy emitted by the body surface, which is proportional to the horse's effort intensity [32,33]. Considering the advances made in recent years in the use of IRT to assess the rider:horse bodyweight ratio [20,21,34] and the rapidly increasing availability of smartphone thermal camera software and medical applications [35][36][37][38], the IRT-based assessment of rider-horse fit may be shortly integrated into everyday equine practice.…”

Silicone-Textile Composite Resistive Strain Sensors for Human Motion-Related Parameters

“…The use of soft and biocompatible sensors to manufacture wearable devices to monitor physiological parameters [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ] and human motion [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] is gaining momentum. Soft sensors result in being a valuable option when comfortability and ease of integration are a priority.…”