Use of smartphone with inertial sensors to measure postural control in paracanoe: preliminary results

Abstract

Introduction: Postural control is an essential motor component for paracanoe performance. However, the protocols commonly used to evaluate this variable have high cost, difficulty of application in field environment and difficult operationalization. Objective: to analyze the applicability of inertial sensors present in smartphones to measure postural control in paracanoe. Method: The sample consisted of 6 male paracanoe practitioners with motor disability and an age range of 31.3±7.1 years. The experimental protocol consisted of attaching a smartphone to the vessel and the Sensor Kinects Pro app was used to measure the values of the gyroscope to record the angular displacements in two conditions: 1) with the hands supporting the lower limbs and 2) with the hands holding a canoeing row. Results and discussion: The results showed high rotation values according to motor impairment, with an increase in rotation values in all deficiency classifications of the sample when submitted to the position without support of the upper limbs. Conclusion: Cell phone sensors had discriminatory power to identify differences in angular displacement of the X-axis in different conditions and functional classifications of paracanoe.