Everyday, athletes compete to push the limits of human performance, and technology adapts alongside them to assist in achieving their performance goals. Wearable motion capture has developed to become one of these many technologies used to advance and improve athletic potential.

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Currently, there are a few companies in the wearable motion capture industry supporting athletes. The ones I’ll touch on in this blog post are Xsens, K-Motion, and 4D Motion. Let’s see how Brave compares to and surpasses these competitors.

First is Xsens. Xsens’ motion capture product, MVN Analyze, works with anywhere from 17 sensors up to a full-body suit – depending on the price you’re willing to pay – to ensure an easy and accurate motion capture experience. They claim that their software system can be easily set up, calibrated, and operated with different levels of complexity and features. MVN Analyze can display a real time 3D simulation, video footage, and graphs. Its system supports segment kinematics, segment global positions, and other data that is vital for high quality motion analysis. Additionally, MVN Analyze’s output is very raw in terms of the data already processed, making it difficult to use by coaches and athletes alike without supporting infrastructure.

On the other hand, Brave gives easy-to-understand 3D output with the ability to provide recommendations on how to improve your movement. In terms of pricing, Xsens charges roughly $7,000 per suit and up to $12,000 per year for their software package, which leans toward a more expensive motion capture alternative. It competes with Brave on its hardware design and quality, but comes nowhere near on its pricing and accessibility. Overall, Xsens provides a great tool for high quality motion capture in research settings, but is not user friendly to newcomers.

Next, K-Motion provides motion capture for athletes in golf, baseball, and softball. Their K-Vest, a series of 4 sensors placed all over the body, is convenient to use and works to produce an actionable general report. However, their software system, The Loop, limits the amount of raw data displayed for further analysis which makes them an oversimplified motion capture alternative. Moreover, with only 4 sensors, K-Vest tends to miss key data points, such as most lower body kinematics (knee, calf, ankle, etc.) that can only be demonstrated by a full body system, which hinders their ability to ensure high quality analysis.

Although K-Motion emphasizes the message “measure, evaluate, and coach,” K-Vest’s limiting features do not allow for proper measurement, evaluation, and therefore, coaching, making them a less practical solution relative to Brave. They additionally price their sensors at almost $5,500 and their software system at $495 per year.

4D Motion, like K-Motion, concentrates their offerings on golf, baseball, and softball. They provide variety in their sensor and module packages, with as many as six sensors to collect motion data. Unlike K-Motion, 4D Motion technology grants the ability to record raw data on additional motion types such as multiple limb kinematics. However, this makes the report produced difficult to read and interpret. Additionally, their hardware has been reported to malfunction during their system calibration procedure. These problems have shown to compromise the accuracy of the 4D Motion technology – something you will never experience with Brave technology. 4D Motion’s sensors retail at around $3,000 without any software fees.

Unlike these companies, Brave stands out in three ways: affordability, accessibility, and accuracy. With 10 sensors that rival other motion capture technology on the market for accuracy and affordability, Brave prioritizes making wearable motion capture accessible to everyone. Brave also has software that balances developing clear, comprehensible reports for a variety of movements while providing the raw data for those more interested in understanding pure motion. By offering both the overview and full scope of the data, Brave supports users who have varying levels of knowledge on motion capture in evaluating their athletes. Also, Brave technology is available for any sport or movement.

Unlike its competitors, Brave is not limited in its ability to capture motion. Whether it be basketball or golf, Brave technology can measure and evaluate the data with reliability and accuracy. Through constant validation and communication with a variety of different parties, Brave ensures that the user engages with and learns from the data. Overall, Brave Virtual Worlds has truly designed the most affordable, accessible, and accurate wearable motion capture product for all.

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