MIMIC by vidhi from india

Learning to sit-ski can be a powerful liberating experience for wheelchair users and people with lower limb disabilities. It can nonetheless be a difficult task. We paired with several adaptive snow sports associations with one goal in mind: to radically simplify the learning process, one of the biggest barriers to entry.

Novice sit-skiers are usually taught by a standing instructor, who follows behind the student, ready to assist them when required. As the instructor is out of sight and using different skiing equipment and techniques, teaching is usually limited to verbal input. This is a major disadvantage. It can be an especially challenging task for a student to control physical motions without any visual input.

Mimic was designed alongside instructors and students. From them we gained a key insight: students learn faster when multiple senses are engaged at the same time. Mimic bridges the gap between instructor and student by providing real-time, accurate visual cues. We scanned and mapped the motion of elite athletes to create a moving image of a sit skier, which is projected in front of the students, guiding their practice. The images are adapted to the student’s expertise and enable them to perfect their technique by imitating the movements.

The instructor controls which cues the student receives by a device that wraps around existing ski gloves. This device converts the instructor's hand gestures into digital signals and transmits them to the student's goggles.

The system enhances the vital student-instructor communication. Mimic improves the learning curve, making it both intuitive and faster, allowing everyone to experience the thrill of skiing.