YEI 3-Space™ Featured in the Portsmouth Daily Times

The YEI 3-Space was featured in an article in the Portsmouth Daily Times (Ohio). You can read the article below

New motion-sensor technologies developed in Portsmouth

by Ryan Scott Ottney

Paul Yost of Yost Engineering in Portsmouth holds the latest technology developed by his company - the world's smallest and lightest motion-sensor computer chip - next to a U.S. quarter to illustrate its size. The chip has many application possibilities, and is also available for sale on Yost's website.

Yost Engineering in Portsmouth is developing new motion-sensor technologies that can be used by military, medical or movies. No bigger than a quarter, the latest version of this technology is the smallest and lightest device in the world.

"The idea behind the sensor is that its inertial Measure Unity [sic] or Attitude Heading Reference Systems (AHRS) can sense the position that it's in very accurately and it can sense motion that is occurring to it as well. The idea is that these could be used anywhere that you want to accurately sense the position of something or the orientation of something," said Paul Yost of Yost Engineering.

Some examples include a physical or athletic trainer measuring the movement of the human body; military vehicles that can measure the terrain beneath it, or missile positioning; or just everyday computing and digital gaming.

There are a lot of medical applications for this. Some of the areas we're exploring now are for measuring seizure disorders or measuring tremors; like for Parkinson's, is the medication helping them? Well, right now they have questionnaires that the people fill out, but that's kind of subjective. But if you have somebody wear something like this, then you can have this objective reading," Yost said.

The device is so sensitive it even measures breathing, and so small and lightweight it could easily be stitched into clothing to monitor a person's breathing and alert doctors if a patient stops breathing.

"Other applications are just fun gaming things. Everyone is familiar with the Nintendo Wii gaming remotes, so this is kind like [sic] the Wii-mote except you don't need that light sensor above the TV and its much more accurate and much more capable," Yost said.

The sensor can be used on any computer in place of a standard mouse or gaming joystick.

Sam Bushman and Chris George are graduates from the digital gaming program at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, now working as programmers at Yost Engineering. In the dark basement of Yost's office on Second Street, George was wearing a motion capture suit with many wireless sensors at movement points on his body. As he moved, the wire skeleton on the computer screen moved the same. The Bushman strapped the sensor to a video game gun controller and began rapidly killing zombies on the large 3-D projector screen.

Because the sensors are wireless and don't use light or cameras like traditional motion capture, it can be taken anywhere to record movement. Programmers would no longer be confined to motion capture studios, and wouldn't need to worry about obstructing the camera's view.

"If you wanted to have motion capture of someone climbing stairs, you have to build stairs in a motion capture studio. Then once you build stairs you can't block the sensors. It's very limiting what you can do. But with a system like this, you can take this out to an actual track or basketball court and use this pretty much anywhere without having a [sic] a specialized room," Yost siad.

Some of the earliest prototypes had to be directly wired into the computer, but now the team of engineering and programers at Yost have made a new wireless sensor. There are several sensors being developed by Yost's team of engineers and programers: a wireless sensor, a wired USB sensor, an embedded sensor that can be added to other devices, and a data-logging sensor that can read and record information.

The sensors are being used now by the U.S. and Canadian militaries, researchers at The Ohio State University Sports Medicine and Rehab, and in the entertainment industry. They also are available for public sale on the Yost Engineering website at www.yostengineering.com

RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com