The Brittany Region organizes an annual call for projects to help local SMEs and mid caps to access b<>com's digital skills and technologies more easily, the aim being to boost development of innovative technological solutions. It is thanks to this initiative that Ochy's teams are starting a collaboration with b<>com to accelerate the development of its product presented at CES last January. Ochy is an app that uses video and AI to provide personalized full-body analysis of running form and gait. Interview with Victor Dequidt, co-founder and CTO of Ochy.
Right now, is it your technical objective to improve the performance of your current model?
The accuracy of our analytical models is crucial. There are many key considerations in an innovative, technological solution like Ochy's. Our running analyses require the calculation of such biomechanical data as ground contact time, flight time, step frequency, overstride1, duty factor2 or angles at each body joint3.
In order to provide ever more accurate and high-quality analysis, we are constantly striving to improve our artificial intelligence models. One of the models we use concerns the computer vision field, known as "human pose estimation". This model is capable of recognizing a human in an image and of segmenting the body to identify key points (knee, feet, elbows etc.).
Thanks to b<>com, we're working on the next generation of this type of artificial intelligence model to tailor it specially to runner recognition and segmentation. Today, most models are trained on less dynamic movements (walking, static positions, etc.). Our goal with b<>com is for our model to achieve unprecedented levels of accuracy in estimating human pose during running.
1 Excessive forward extension of the leg, resulting in heel (or rearfoot) striking instead of landing on the midfoot.
2 This is the ratio of ground contact time to stride time.
3 Joint angles indicate the orientation of the joints.
In your opinion, in what way is the support of b<>com’s expert teams an advantage for a start-up like yours?
The expertise of the b<>com’s teams is a major advantage for our start-up. Their ability to develop bespoke innovations, combining health and artificial intelligence, aligns perfectly with our requirements for accurate, personalized biomechanical analysis.
Their cross-functional approach, together with their in-depth expertise, shores up our ambition to deliver posture analyses of the highest quality. Participating in a Call for Projects with backing from the Brittany Region, Images et Réseaux's certification, and b<>com’s support is a unique opportunity for us to accelerate our product development by outsourcing part of our R&D.
This collaboration will enable us to achieve crucial milestones more quickly, which will thus be of benefit not only to our technology but also to our users.
"Collaborating with a startup like Ochy allows us to combine our expertise to meet real industrial competitiveness requirements, which is very stimulating."
Fund-raising, partnerships with athletics federations, a stand at CES... with the Paris Olympics less than 4 months away, you've made a strong start. What are the next steps in your brand development?
We're thrilled with the excitement and enthusiastic reception surrounding our initiative so far! With a successful fund-raising campaign and key partnerships with the French Athletics Federation (FFA), Quebec Athletics Federation (FQA) and others in the run-up to the Paris Olympics, we've certainly got off to a flying start. This is only the beginning of our ambitions, however.
In the short term, our aim is to continue developing our product for individual runners. We firmly believe in biomechanical analysis becoming more widely available, so that every runner, whether amateur or professional, can access tools previously reserved for elite athletes. This vision guides our product development, which is aimed at making these technologies more accessible and at integrating more features to meet our users' needs.
At the same time, we plan to consolidate and extend our partnerships with international sports federations. The interest we have sparked beyond our borders is a strong indicator of our solution’s global potential. Other federations have approached us, demonstrating the universal need for accurate and reliable biomechanical analysis. These collaborations are essential to adapt our offering to the specific requirements of each discipline and to support athletes in their quest for performance and health.
Developments in modern sport, where racing, sport and data are intertwined, are opening up new avenues for our technology. We are actively exploring opportunities to work with other sporting disciplines that include running as a key component of training and competition. Our goal is to deliver constructive biomechanical analyses that can benefit a broader range of athletes, by tailoring our tools around the specific needs of each sport.
Finally, our collaboration with rehabilitation clinics is another pillar of our development strategy. By working hand-in-hand with these establishments, we aim to offer new ways of obtaining biomechanical analyses to help with injury prevention and recovery. Thanks to these partnerships, we can gain a more in-depth understanding of actual rehabilitation needs, and fine-tune our product to best cater to these requirements.
In short, our vision for the future is to continue to innovate and broaden our impact through sport and health. With the support of our partners, users and investors, we are confident in our ability to turn biomechanical analysis into an essential tool for all those involved in the world of sport.
