STW Citius Altius Sanius
STW Citius Altius Sanius

STW Citius Altius Sanius

The prevailing lifestyle in the Western world (immobility, unhealthy eating, smoking and drinking habits) is an important factor in the etiology of many chronic diseases. Physical activity through sport participation helps to reduce this risk, but introduces new risk factors associated with exercise related injuries. The aim of the program “Citius, Altius, Sanius” is to stimulate people of all performance levels to engage in and sustain physical activity through sports and fitness, improve their performance and prevent injuries by providing informative and motivating information using advanced sensor and data science techniques (https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2017/tu-delft/six-million-euros-in-research-funding-to-develop-technology-that-prevents-sports-injuries/)

Our focus is on providing feedback that works to athletes. Feedback is crucial to inform and motivate athletes, so as to achieve behavioural change in the short and long run. Feedback has to be about the performance, e.g. using avatars (virtual reality), visualized information to improve movement execution (augmented reality) or auditory or tactile cues, to show previous performance, or relative performance with regard to the peer group. Feedback has also to be provided to control the risk of injury. If the injury probability is increasing rapidly, a new individualized training protocol will be advised, or even quitting the training or match.