Biomechanical analysis of 10-pin bowling using wireless inertial sensor

This paper discusses the use of wireless inertial sensor to analyze the arm swing movement of a bowler. The main objective is to develop an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) LabVIEW program to analyze and to visualize critical biomechanics parameters of the arm swing movement which allow the bowling coach and the player to assess the performance of the bowler. The most fundamental biomechanics parameters are the angular velocity of the arm at maximum arm height during back swing and at point of release as well as the wrist angle of the entire arm swing movement. Based on the data obtained from the sensor, only angular rate Y, roll angle and pitch angle data are used to be processed and to be analyzed in order to derive all parameters. The results are then to be displayed in the GUI in an appropriate manner. In addition, the developed GUI can acquire the data directly from the sensor and save that data into an Excel file. Besides that, the GUI also has the comparison feature where the bowling coach/player can load two data files and compare the results of each parameter. Several suggestions have been proposed at the end to further improve the effectiveness of this research so that the bowling coach/player will be able to analyze the performance of the bowler more effectively.