KinexAI’s KINEX P1: Revolutionizing Knee Joint Health with Biomechanical Engineering and AI Technology
Healthy Joint: A Mechanically Balanced Joint
When we consider a human body part and its condition, we often refer to it as a biological and living component of our musculoskeletal structure. However, we tend to overlook that it is also a piece of machinery, engineered to produce motion and respond to external parameters and forces. These forces cause the joint to react by producing its own moments, which are crucial for maintaining whole-body stability (no movement), stabilizing a part of it, or, in some cases, breaking the equilibrium of forces to produce movement.
This bio-machine requires proper and precise alignment along its rotational axis. For instance, in a knee joint, if the segments that make up this body part are not correctly aligned, the joint is susceptible to injury.
How Is a Joint Not Properly Aligned?
Considering the knee joint as an example, several factors can lead to misalignment and dysfunction. Misalignment can result in inflammation, pain, and impaired joint use (resulting in a limp). These factors include hereditary conditions (like genu valgum or genu varum), habitual factors determined by activities such as sports or work environments that expose the joint to specific conditions, such as continuously climbing a ramp at a 7-degree inclination sideways.
Such misuse can lead to knee joint mechanism dysfunction, inflammation, and potentially more severe conditions like arthritis, meniscus tears, ACL, PCL, LCL injuries, chondropathy, or chondromalacia. Uneven weight distribution during motion or even during the stance phase can exacerbate these issues.
Knee joint stability is achieved by balancing external forces with reaction moments produced by muscles. These muscles are recruited either to produce joint movement or, in the case of the stance phase, to produce moments against the ground reaction force to stabilize the joint.
KinexAI’s Approach to Joint Health
At KinexAI, we view the human neuro-musculoskeletal system as a live, perfectly tuned machine, subject to bio-chemical and bio-mechanical changes. These changes can have positive or negative outcomes, depending on the stimulus. To avoid and correct negative outcomes and their symptoms, we have developed KINEX P1. This wearable knee device features EMG sensors that read muscle frequency in the muscles involved in the knee joint. Integrated with biomechanical principles in our AI algorithm, we can diagnose the mechanical condition of the knee joint and offer corrective solutions if needed.