THE USERS we have been involved in are ballroom dancers, detailing the standard dancers. They are both professional dancers and beginners amateurs or young people climbing to high career. Ballroom dancing is not just steps, rhythm and contact with a partner. This is primarily the correct posture of the dancers. It consists of several things; hip position, enough lap in the knees, keeping head but most important is to keep a strong and stable dance frame. It is responsible for the correct alignment, pairing, figure making and elegant look. Dancers often focus on the steps, holding the head and forget the basic aspect - holding the frame. If within a few seconds, they do not fix the bug, it influence to the rest of the dance routine, weaknesses, lack of comfort, and even posture defects.
THE ANSWER to this need is a device that helps in training the correct holding of the dance frame. The product is dedicated to both men and women. We know very well that a trainer with 20 dancers below is not able to capture every single mistake. The product consists of two rubber bands, which we use with Velcro on the shoulders.Between them the deflection sensor of diffraction. At the time of bending - a change in the correct holding of the frame, the electric pulse reads this information and passes it to the user by means of a pulse, which is caused by the vibrating movement of an electric motor mounted on one of the bands. Before we can think, we will feel an extra impulse on our shoulder, which will remind us of correcting the posture. The engine shuts off only after the improvement. Thanks to that, we can focus on the steps, and the correct holding of the frame will be made faster than we think.
THE DEVICE consists of 2 velcro straps, which you wear on your shoulders. Between them, a diffraction sensor in the form of a flexible elastic band is connected by jewel-fasteners together with a cable to read data and transfer them to the Arduino. In one of the straps is a mini Arduino powered by 8V battery, a 3.5V electric motor and data transmission cabling. Everything is based on the programmed code action. This small set allows us to monitor the work of our hands and correct the incorrect holding of the dance frame.
"I have been training since 12 and I did not realize how often I make the mistake of letting loose the frame. Now I feel much more confident on the dance floor, as if I have a personal trainer all the time." - Dawid, 21 yo
ballet dance
The second problem we have is the position of the foot in the ballet. It's like how the foot look, how stressed it is, how much fingers are being well-held is very important. Just as straightforward, straightened knees, open arms and raised head. To keep track of everything, you have to have a lot of patience and self-discipline. To facilitate this we have created a device that signals to the dancer the wrong foot position.
When we base our foot on the smallest fingers we are exposed to the greatest injuries that can even lead to a loss of position in the sport. To solve this, our device, after crossing the safe limit of foot stress, informs us of a change that we can correct and land in the correct position even during the jump. It is built on the same principle as the first project, with only software and range small changes.
"From now I have more mental comfort and I can focus on other aspects in dance than just feet, without the risk of frequent injuries." - Laura, 17 yo