SpokeSense: developing a real-time sensing platform for wheelchair sports

SpokeSense is an easy-to-install sensing solution intended for wheelchair basketball players. Our aim with SpokeSense is to provide support for both long-term and real-time analysis of performance information for wheelchair court sport athletes. We developed and tested SpokeSense in the context of wheelchair basketball. We extend prior work quantifying wheelchair court-sport activity by enabling real-time review of performance data and other important events as well as supporting long-term logging. Our secondary focus was on creating a means of tracking activity that would be accurate, safe to use, and practical. In this article, we discuss the design of our sensor to support practical use during wheelchair basketball activities, provide access to relevant accurate data, and support real-time and post-hoc review. We discuss the performance of our sensor and the initial interface to support data review. Finally, we discuss broader implications for the design of assistive technologies for physical activity.