As any horse owner knows, lameness is the most common ailment to affect horses. Now, a University of Missouri equine veterinarian, Kevin Keegan, has developed a system to effectively assess this problem using motion detection. This system has been referred to as a "Lameness Locator."
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a two-year Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II Grant of $500,000 for further research and development of the "Lameness Locator" to be used in detecting the cause or causes of lameness by sampling limb motion at a higher frequency than possible with the human eye and measuring incoordination from neurological disease.
A Phase I study was instrumental in developing a prototype. This Phase II grant, awarded to Equinosis, a faculty start-up with license from the University of Missouri, will allow the researchers to develop a product for commercial use by veterinarians.
The goals include expanding analysis to various gaits in horses and developing a parallel device for horses that measures incoordination from neurological disease.
Improving sensor design and expanding analysis to allow lameness to be categorized based on diagnosis are two additional goals of the research.
In addition, designing a way for existing analysis to run efficiently on smaller computing platforms such as cell phones or iPads will be addressed.