Filmmaking technology, heavily featured in movies like Avatar, is now used as a tool by medical professionals.
The upcoming Avatar movies, directed by James Cameron, are booming (in a good way) at the box office, filling millions of people into movie theaters with varying hygiene standards.
Even as the film tells the story of distant planets and the blue aliens known as the Na'vi, James Cameron believes it also shows how cinema still has an advantage over streaming services.
Because there are no real blue aliens in the movie, most of the actors wear motion capture suits that record their every move and transfer it to a computer.
But the technology used in the making of the videos turned out to have a second life in modern medicine and the study of diseases that limit mobility.
Motion capture suits, such as those shown in movies like Avatar, can be used to track a person's movements. If you show these movements to an AI, it can analyze body movements and reasonably determine if something is wrong.
Researchers from University College London and Imperial College London collaborated for a decade to create the technology behind it.
According to research done on patients with Friedreich's ataxia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, motion capture garments may benefit people with different types of mobility-impairing conditions.
There are many different diseases that impair a person's ability to move freely and comfortably, but it often takes a long time to accurately identify and diagnose this type of disease.
In their experiments, the researchers found that they could detect diseases in twice as fast as doctors.
Theoretically, a significant reduction in diagnostic time would be a boon for those suffering from a condition that restricts their movement, because the earlier the disease is discovered, the sooner it can be treated.
It could also significantly reduce the cost of clinical trials and help create new treatments.
From the Great Ormond Street Child Health Center, Dr. Valeria Ricotti told the BBC that the results of the study "completely surprised her".
The impact on the identification of new diseases and the creation of new drugs "could be enormous," Ricotti said.
Prof Aldo Faisal, one of the researchers behind the project, stated that one of the benefits of the technology is that it 'detects small movements that people may not notice'.
Source: chimniii.com/news/Science
Günceleme: 21/03/2023 13:07