A Burnaby company’s motion-tracking technology is being used in a unique subterranean lab in Toronto where researchers will study how seniors interact with their surroundings.
PhoeniX Technologies Inc.’s system measures and analyzes peoples’ movement in the lab, which is a series of chambers that mimic different physical environments.
The underground lab is the centrepiece of the $36-million iDAPT (Intelligent Design for Adaptation, Participation and Technology) project that will contain a network of 12 lab and other research spaces when fully complete in 2011.
The underground lab, dubbed the challenging environment assessment lab (CEAL), features the world’s first hydraulic motion simulator that mimics everyday environmental challenges faced by older people and those with disabling illness and injury.
The simulator’s different chambers can generate snow, ice and different motions, slopes and terrain.
The Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the University of Toronto are among the project partners.
Burnaby’s PhoeniX is one of many Canadian companies contributing expertise or technology to CEAL. Companies from Germany and the Netherlands are also involved. CIMCO Refrigeration of Toronto has built a moveable ice floor for the lab.
A drawbridge, an overhead robot safety harness and a dome featuring 3D streetscapes and surround sound are among the elements created for the project.
Scientists will use the underground lab to study older people and those with disabilities as they encounter real-life challenges. The aim is to develop practical solutions that help people live as independently as possible.
“Creating this amazing research space has been a complex endeavour,” said Geoff Fernie, vice-president of research at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, in a release. “And it’s certainly thrown a few curves our way. We’ve been fortunate to draw on the expertise of so many Canadian companies.”