A small but revolutionary motion sensor worn by athletes has won the 2013 European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC). The idea, developed by Kinexon, consist in providing accurate, realtime information on an athlete’s condition.

The device is based on a small sensor cell that offers precise localisation and tracking. Accurate to about 10 cm and updated 20 times a second, it captures even rapid movement.

The Kinexon cell

The cell combines realtime improved satnav with information from internal inertial sensors. The satnav technique increases the precision of position data from the Galileo, GPS and Glonass satellite constellations by using the “phase” of the signal’s carrier wave, rather than the satnav signal information content itself.

The core of their Kinexon One athlete monitoring system is the wearable Kinexon Cell that captures the performance of an athlete and relays it to a base station. There, the data are processed and transferred to the cloud for access by coaches and medical staff.

Kinexon One system

Performance, health and fitness levels such as energy consumption, training load and activity are available in real time, also helping to prevent injuries through overtraining.

With the first version set for launch shortly, the two young Kinexon founders (Dr Oliver Trinchera and Dr Alexander Hüttenbrink), were awarded the €20 000 prize.