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You ’ve heard of car airbags deploying within milliseconds to protect passengers . How about an airbag for your knee joint ?
That ’s what former basketball hopeful Kylin Shaw is working on with his inauguration , Hippos Exoskeleton — a “ articulatio genus arm ” that measures stress on the knee join and inflates around the knee to protect it from major injuries likeACL and MCL tears . The sleeve inflates in 30 millisecond , which the society says is faster than the 60 milliseconds it takes for ACL snag to occur .
“ I , myself , have loved basketball since I was six years old , and for the next decade , it became my intact life , ” Shaw told TechCrunch .
“ I dedicated myself to intensive education . … But at 17 , just as I was preparing for a professional basketball career and NCAA trials , I heard a sickening soda from my articulatio genus while landing from a dunk , ” he said .
The injury terminate Shaw ’s sporting vocation expectation , but it gave him the thought to coalesce AI - driven sensors and a “ knee - cup of tea . ” He drop out of the London School of Economics to acquire it .
Hippos enjoin the dyad use prognosticative AI to notice risky movements in material time and deploys airbags around the stifle , potentially saving athletes thousands in aesculapian disbursement .
Shaw and his carbon monoxide - founder Bhavy Metakar ( CTO ) initially bootstrapped Hippos by investing $ 1,000 of their rescue to develop a prototype and generate initial preorders from clinics and athlete . The inauguration has now heighten a $ 642,000 pre - seed round from investors Possible Ventures and Silicon Roundabout Ventures .
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Shaw tell TechCrunch the companionship has already secured “ over six shape in preorders ” and would use the new funding to develop the product further and push to a full launch in around three month .
He sound out the eventual unit would cost around $ 129 and fall with a $ 29 to $ 99 per month subscription plan cover AI - driven insights , pocket-sized air canisters , and workout trailing .
The startup has execute tryout with U.K. football game clubs and with genius athletes , like universe skiing champion Alex Schlopy of the U.S. Ski Team . In a statement , Schlopy said : “ I ’m impressed by the preventive map and it finger so light and prosperous ! This brace break me a sense of psychological safety . ”
Beyond elect athletes , Shaw said the product could be used for accidental injury bar for anyone else , such as those in construction jobs or the aged .
Hippos may well be pushing at an open door . While approximately 150,000 ACL injuriesare reportedin the United States each year , and 8.6 milliongloballyamong adults , those stats do n’t let in combat injury among children . Also , most health solution focus on rehabilitation rather than prevention .
Moreover , existing company addressing joint auspices in sports and renewal focussing on traditional supportive equipment or post - injury backing .
stain in this place admit Enovis’DonJoy(orthopedic braces and supports ) , ExoKinetics’Zeen(devices primarily for renewal ) , andShock Doctor(sports braces and protective gear mechanism for harm direction ) . None of these solutions volunteer predictive or reactive technology in the way the Hippos airbag does .
Also participating in the stave were Hugging Face ’s co - founder and CSO , Thomas Wolf ; Wayve ’s co - founder Amar Shah ; and Dr. James Brown , the lead sports practice of medicine doc at UK Athletics .
