According to Houston Methodist Learning Center, in 2024/2025, millions of people experience joint injuries each year, yet outside of professional sports medicine, most individuals have no way to objectively understand how their body is moving or the progress they are making during injury recovery. This disproportionately affects young athletes, elderly individuals, and schools with limited resources.
Evidence shows this problem is growing. Athletic injuries have increased by roughly 25 percent over the past five years, while one in three U.S. secondary schools lacks access to an athletic trainer. Without reliable feedback, individuals often develop compensation patterns, incomplete range of motion, or long-term joint damage. Additionally, there is a significant lack of educational resources that teach people what healthy joint movement actually looks like.
Designed by Andrew Metz, KnexFlex is an affordable, wearable knee-angle tracking device paired with an analytics-driven platform that transforms raw motion data into educational, actionable feedback. The prototyped device uses a magnetic encoder to continuously measure joint-angle movement during walking and stores that data securely for analysis. Users can view real-time joint angles and gait-cycle graphs on their phone, allowing them to immediately understand how they can improve their movement.
