Training

Middlesex University London is putting student nurses, pediatric postgrads and midwifery students to work in virtual environments to deal with scenarios faced in real-world settings.

If you're a serious weightlifter, then you know how important it is to maintain proper form. Calibrex is designed to help, as it uses ultrasound to detect if the barbell isn't being lifted symmetrically – it also tracks the user's performance stats.

​Ping pong is a two (or four) player game, but if you need to practice alone then a robot server can help. Cheap bots can be had, but more features means more cost. Joola says that its Infinity Smart Robot boasts advanced features for a fraction of the cost of high end robot trainers.​

​If you're a member of a rowing team, it's not just your stroke that's important, but also how well you coordinate that stroke with those of your team-mates. With that in mind, Idaho-based rowers Mike Schaefer and John Balint invented the connected and collaborative Stroke Master rowing machine.

Among other things, trained dogs are capable of sniffing out bombs, locating buried survivors at disaster sites, or assisting the physically challenged. They can't, however, always see or hear their handler's commands. A new vest is designed to help, as it relays gentle vibrational cues.

Wearable health-monitors are everywhere, from Fitbits for the health conscious to continuous glucose monitors for diabetics, but most are limited in what they can tell us, and there are issues around accuracy, calibration and reliability. Researchers in Sweden are working to change that.

Doctors in the south of the UK can now run through virtual reality simulations of emergency care for folks suffering from Type 1 diabetes, before applying what they've learned on real patients.

A new brain-training app has been shown to improve attention and concentration after just one month of use. The smartphone game, developed by scientists from the University of Cambridge, is now commercially available, but not all experts are convinced of the app’s purported beneficial effects.

While there are already surgical training systems that use VR headsets to "place" students in an interactive computer-generated operating room, a new simulator goes a step further. It incorporates haptic feedback, allowing users to actually feel the pressure exerted by digital tissue.

​Whether you're practising yoga or running a marathon, coaches will tell you to control your breathing. Given that coaches can't be with you at all times, though, Zansors' new wearable Respa device is designed to be the next-best thing.

At Interbike 2017, Wahoo Fitness unveiled a new device for its indoor training system that recreates one of the more challenging aspects of riding: hills. The Kickr Climb attaches to other Kickr trainers and simulators, changing the grade of the ride to better simulate steeper inclines.

​Hill-climbing may be a great workout for cyclists, but, well … not everyone has a hilly road nearby. That's why Australian cyclist Michael Freiberg created the AIRhub. Sold as a complete front wheel, its hub incorporates an electromagnetic brake that creates up to 100 watts of resistance.