LA PROPOINT BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN ENTERTAINMENT AND MILITARY WORLDS

Company’s New Project at Walter Reed Army Medical Center Puts Motion Capture Technology in the Service of Amputee Soldiers

(Sun Valley, Calif.) September 17, 2007 – LA ProPoint, a leader in the design, engineering, fabrication and installation of stage and show systems for the entertainment industry, has found a way to put theatrical technology to use to improve the lives of U.S. Army amputees not just once, but twice.

By now, most people are familiar with the use of motion capture technology to add realistic movement to everything from animated feature films to video game battle sequences.  Lately, however, it is being put to even more practical use.  First at the Intrepid National Armed Forces Rehabilitation Center at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, and now at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., motion capture technology is being used to help amputees and the medical professionals who care for them.  And LA ProPoint has helped to make it all possible.

In June of 2006, LA ProPoint had just finished what they called the “Gait Lab” in Texas, an ultra-modern rehabilitation space for use by amputee victims newly fitted with prostheses, when the company was tapped by the military again, this time to deliver the same state-of-the-art motion capture technology to wounded soldiers being treated in our nation’s capital. 

Admitting upwards of 16,000 patients each year, Walter Reed Army Medical Center combines the highest quality in patient care, teaching and research for the benefit of wounded military servicemen and women.  Its new Amputee Care Center is specifically designed to gather patient information using a high-tech, state-of-the-art computer system that combines reflective markers and cameras to study how amputees move using their prostheses.

At Walter Reed, the LA ProPoint team worked closely with Duncan Mackenzie of Proskenion Design and with Brian Baum on the design and fabrication of the automated structures designed to support the motion capture cameras.  These free-standing, vibration-isolated structures, immune to any ambient frequencies potentially generated by the surrounding building or equipment, were erected inside of a building shell that houses a selection of simulators and exercise equipment used to simulate physical activities that occur in daily life.  Large, flexible spaces that can even accommodate activities such as running, the new labs also include a virtual reality system with free-moving platforms that allow patients to work through on-screen simulations such as standing in a rocking boat or riding on a swaying subway car.

To record all this rehab activity, LA ProPoint provided a flexible means for mounting the motion capture equipment so that optimum height and angles can be achieved for each camera, maximizing the amount of meaningful data that can be collected. Experts will analyze the complex, detailed information, develop solutions, improve rehabilitations processes, and improve prosthetic designs and orthopedic interventions
.
“The motion capture labs at the Amputee Care Center at Walter Reed are yet another example of how entertainment technology can cross over into other areas of life to provide an extremely valuable contribution to society,” said Mark Riddlesperger, founder and president of LA ProPoint.  “The data collected at Walter Reed’s two new motion analysis laboratories will benefit the patients who use them, the doctors, nurses and physical trainers who care for them, and the designers of prosthetic limbs.   We at LA ProPoint are all proud to have played a part in this project and look forward to the strides that will be made because of it.”

About LA ProPoint
Since 2002, LA ProPoint has been a leading provider of design, engineering, fabrication and installation of stage and show systems for all aspects of the entertainment industry, from concert halls and theme parks to outdoor amphitheatres and movie sets.  Strategically headquartered in Southern California in the city of Sun Valley, the company has a huge reach.  Its highly skilled, experienced technicians, fabricators and craftspeople regularly take on far-flung projects from the Hollywood Bowl and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas.