On the Dari Motion website, the company offers a series of videos demonstrating how, using eight cameras, it can record the way people move – producing 800,000 data points for analysis.
“What is Dari? It’s the story about us and how we move – whether it’s forward, backward, up and down, under and even over. It’s a story about technology and science. Dari is a company built on the past, informed by our present and envisions our future as a better world.”
The firm claims to provide fast and comprehensive movement data and analytics, allowing coaches to see whether someone who’s suffered a common knee injury is ready to return to play. It promises progress reports on recovery from hip and shoulder surgeries and predicts the risk of certain injuries, but at the University of Virginia, Professor Siddhartha Angadi is skeptical.
He tested Dari’s system and that of a company called Sparta Science on military men.
“Artificial intelligence in sports medicine really isn’t ready for prime time.”
Ben Hando, an expert on orthopedic physical therapy at Baylor, teamed up with Angadi to compare predictions made by each system with what actually happened.
“It said that Airman Jones was more likely to suffer a lower extremity injury. Did they, in fact, suffer a lower extremity injury? It said that Airman Johnson was more likely to suffer a heat injury. Did they?
Then, Angadi says, they published five papers on their findings.
“It really wasn’t useful in predicting injuries.”
Angadi and Hando say companies are collecting millions of dollars based on unproven claims.
“This is something that’s happening throughout collegiate athletics, professional athletics, tactical environment, clinics throughout the country,” Hando says.
And, they fear the findings might give people a false sense of security, leading to injuries that could have been prevented.
We reached out to Dari for their response but have not heard back. Sparta Science was acquired by ŌURA, a Finnish health tech company that says it stopped production and distribution of Sparta's system and does not offer a product that claims to assess an individual's injury risk.
