Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia (IBV) is a technological centre that studies the behaviour of the human body and its interactions with products, environments and services. Founded in 1976, the Institute is currently coordinated under the agreement of Valencian Institute for Small and Medium Industry (IMPIVA) and the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). It is integrated by more than 200 professionals from different academic backgrounds (engineers, physicians, biologists, sport scientists, physiotherapists, social workers, designers, economists, etc.) that work together in an interdisciplinary approach.

With the aim to improve competitiveness among the business sector, the IBV promotes people’s well-being through the combination of knowledge in areas such as biomechanics, ergonomics and emotional engineering, and its application to diverse sectors.  In the field related to older people and ageing, IBV has two main objectives: to provide solutions for companies interested in satisfying the requirements of older people and to guarantee that the products are designed under this age group needs, preferences and characteristics. One of the specific fields where IBV develops its activity is the assessment of postural control, by studies in their laboratory of human movements, and posturography and dynamic tests implemented in the NedSVE/IBV system for balance assessment.

Research areas: Biomechanical analysis; Study of the interaction of the users with products, services and the environment; Functional assessment; User centred design and product development; Assistive technologies; ICTs applied to health care, rehabilitation and prevention; ageing process, health at work.

Role in the consortium:

IBV will be responsible for all biomechanics aspects of the exercise game and Xbox/Kinect reliability in this regard. In addition, IBV will be the lead investigator in charge for the trend analysis of 3D exercise movement and other relevant data (eg. heart rate and others). Transient changes of these data over time will be an important input for the fall prediction model of the KBS. Furthermore IBV will be responsible for the Spanish End-User group during pilot studies and in the main evaluation trial.


Key Personnel:

Juan-Manuel Belda-Lois
Dr. Juan-Manuel Belda-Lois (PhD in Physics) senior scientist at IBV. He has been involved in the set-up of methodologies for functional assessment of people with disabilities using biomechanical instruments, including human gait, balance and other functions. He has been involved in many RTD projects incorporating users, among others the following EU projects: IPCA (FP5 project), DRIFTS (FP5 project), TREMOR (FP7 project), BETTER (FP7 project).

Helios De-Rosario
Dr. Helios De-Rosario (MSc(Eng) PhD) is a researcher of the Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia (IBV). He his specialised in Ergonomics, usability of Human-Machine Interfaces, and the analysis of Human Movement. He has participated in several National Funded Projects on the latter topic, for the kinematic analysis of the spine, the application of functional data analysis to human movement, and the study of soft tissue artefacts. He was awarded a PhD for his research in these projects.