Like Nothing Else®
Taking the science of human ambulatory performance to an entirely new level, the Kinoped is the first lower extremity health and fitness system that is both evidence-based and truly functional. Based on a comprehensive analysis of how we build strength, improve speed, and increase control, the Kinoped abandons a century of precedence to deliver the most comprehensive ambulatory performance device ever devised.
Evidence-Based Performance
In developing the Kinoped, we took the best products and protocol used by specialists across the ambulatory spectrum, and promptly threw those techniques “out the window.” Instead of basing the Kinoped on what is assumed to be true, we focused on what statistically valid, peer-reviewed science had to say. And instead of focusing on the narrow research findings that drive products and protocol alike, we looked at all aspects contributing to optimal ambulatory performance. The result of our 25-year mission to re-write the book on ambulatory health and fitness is the Kinoped.
The Platform
The Kinoped is the first iteration of Innovations Health’s revolutionary intellectual property concerning human ambulation. Designed specifically for professional athletes, the Kinoped replicates the ground reaction force vectors experienced during ambulation in order to create moments of force that initiate functional kinetic chains. With the hardware platform in place, development has started on a virtual reality gaming interface that turns scientifically designed exercise programs into highly engaging games. Coming versions of the product line will include versions for the home and gym, and eventually for use in clinical environments.
“Boots” – A Kinoped Story
A Functional Approach
Functional Rehabilitation and Exercise is based on the concept that if you want to get better at something, you practice that activity. In other words, don’t throw a football to get better at shooting a basketball, don’t ice skate to improve your running speed, and don’t ride a bike or perform squats to run faster or jump higher during a game. Those activities may accomplish a variety of athletic objectives, but do not represent a functional approach to improving ambulatory performance, especially when it comes to injury prevention or recovery.
The Kinoped is the first system capable of replicating infinite ambulatory environments and functional motion patterns with variable resistance on all planes, allowing for exercises that replicate the ground reaction force vectors experienced during ambulation in order to create moments of force that initiate functional kinetic chains.
A Dominant IP in Multiple Markets
Because we took an evidentiary approach to understanding the elements of human ambulation, the Kinoped is more than a product, process, or marketing gimmick. Human ambulation occurs on a spectrum, but the biomechanics needs of a quadriplegic are the same as a professional athlete. The Kinoped IP represents a biomechanically-dominant approach in ten distinct markets, including Microgravity Environments, Professional Sports, Recreational Exercise, Military Training, Industrial Control, Computer Gaming, Complex Rehabilitation, Gait Research, Injury Prevention, and Physical Therapy.
In each of these markets, the Kinoped IP holds a biomechanics advantage that creates a business moat that lays the groundwork for segment dominance.
Initial Markets
The Kinoped has two early adopter markets that are also influencers: Professional sports and Micro Gravity Environments. Both of these markets are exposed to an extraordinary amount of risk related to ambulatory health and fitness. In pro sports, financial and competitive factors are primary – in MGE, survival of astronauts is at risk.
Building the Perfect Beast
The four North American Pro Sports leagues lose $1.5 billion annually in payroll paid to players unable to perform due to lower extremity injuries. The products and protocol used by trainers and medical professionals to prepare athletes for battle are insufficient to the task. The Kinoped is the first functional and objective performance system designed specifically for professional athletes, allowing them to improve performance, prevent injuries and speed rehabilitation using science, not dogma.
Surviving Space
The harsh nature of micro-gravity environments presents a nearly insurmountable obstacle to survival beyond the confines of earth. Current interventions used by NASA to sustain health and fitness in space are biomechanically incapable of attaining this objective. The Kinoped IP represents the only biomechanical mechanism capable of sustaining functional muscular health, maintaining circulation, and retaining proprioception during extended stays in MGE.
Reimagining Rehabilitation
Every product and protocol used by physical therapists to optimize ambulatory health and fitness are non-functional, subjective, and incapable of optimizing the rehabilitation process. This results in hundreds of billions of dollars in wasted healthcare spending, and 50,000 lives lost due to falls every year. The Kinoped is the first system capable of addressing this burgeoning ambulatory crisis, allowing for functional exercises designed to address the kinetic and kinematic requirements of a task while improving proprioception and bodily function.
The Picture of Ambulatory Health
The Kinoped will provide the most comprehensive and complete snapshot of ambulatory performance ever devised. Each exercise program will commence with a series of 3D on-screen motion patterns the user follows with their foot, in a unique test of their strength, speed and control. These patterns will allow us to measure all lower extremity muscle groups and kinetic chains, and to identify ROM, proprioception, strength, and control issues.
We will use this data to create a visual snapshot of ambulatory health and fitness. Repeated prior to every session, these snapshots can provide a comprehensive analysis of ambulatory health over the course of a season, career, and lifetime, and will allow us to tailor exercise regimens that are designed to develop and maintain optimal ambulatory health and fitness.
The Ambulatory Spectrum
The ambulatory expectations of an 80-year-old recovering from a hip replacement procedure are very different from those of a 26-year-old professional athlete intent on improving their athletic performance, but the same bio-mechanical truths exist for both. The Kinoped was designed to comprehensively address all of the critical bio-mechanical elements of ambulation necessary to maximize ambulatory performance, something no other exercise or mobility system or protocol can accomplish.
Game On!
Built on the Unity gaming platform, the Kinoped interface will provide game-makers with two new functional 3D controllers, the human feet. The precise placement of a user’s feet in time and space following specific motion patterns across a 3D virtual ambulatory surface allow for an unparalleled gaming experience, with each foot providing seven axes of game control. Our Virtual Programming Environment®, which features a toolbox of functional and non-functional motion patterns with adjustable resistance on all planes, makes it easy for developers to create games adapted to each user’s unique kinematic profile, while trainers and clinicians can quickly devise customized gameplay that accomplishes specific or global ambulatory objectives.
Lessons in Ambulation
Bike vs. Kinoped
Anatomy of an ACL
About Innovations Health
Innovations Health Systems, LLC is a privately-held healthcare holding company with operations in complex pediatric healthcare, ancillary medical services, and mobility equipment design, manufacturing, and distribution.
- CHONC – Children’s Healthcare Organization of Northern California, is a pediatric continuum of care that includes Northern California’s only hospital and sub-acute facilities for catastrophically-injured or severely disabled, machine-dependent children.
- Innovations Health Management operates a system of radiology and urgent care centers located throughout the East Bay.
- Innovations Health Devices is focused on advancing human mobility through an innovative approach to functional performance.
About the Kinoped
The Kinoped is a device based on the collaborative friendship of two individuals with a deep passion for improving human mobility. Andre Foucault, PT (retired) spent his professional career as a geriatric physical therapist in a Canadian hospital. He began designing 3D hip strengthening devices for post-replacement surgeries in the mid-1990s. At the same time, in Central California a medical device manufacturer named Dan Niccum was producing computerized hand rehabilitation workstations and prototyped whole-body robotics for passive mobilization of individuals with strokes or other severe mobility limitations.
In 2012, they entered into a collaboration to design and build the Kinoped, the first seven axes, 3D lower extremity performance improvement, injury prevention, and rehabilitation system. Following 25 years of independent and collaborative development, their concepts were brought to life by the talents of Philippe Morin, Andre’s nephew and owner of SET47, designer and manufacturer of the Kinoped. The Kinoped and future iterations of the mobility technologies produced by Andre, Dan and Philippe will be distributed world-wide by Innovations Health Devices, LLC.
Development Partners Needed
Innovations Health is seeking professional sports teams or leagues to work with us as we refine our products and develop protocol to accomplish specific ambulatory objectives, such as preventing ACL injuries or improving gait biomechanics. Protocol partners will be provided early access to our unique intellectual property, product pipeline, and functional gaming applications.
For more information or to inquire about becoming a development partner, contact product co-creator and Innovations Health Devices CEO Dan Niccum at dan@innovationshealth.com or by phone at (916) 425-1171.