HQ BaselineMotion capture
The phone already has the sensors. We just use them.
Every iPhone and Android phone sold since 2016 has a 50+ Hz accelerometer and gyroscope. Those are the same sensors that drive fitness trackers, AR apps, and drone stabilization. HQ uses them to score balance and gait.
The phone in the athlete’s pocket ships with sensors that are more than sufficient for concussion-grade sway detection. The literature supports this: torso-mounted inertial measurement correlates strongly with established balance-screening metrics.
How we use the sensors
- mBESS: sway amplitude, frequency, and error detection
- Tandem gait: motion onset, stride cadence, total time, variability
- Simple reaction: touch-event timing with sub-10ms precision
What we don’t use
We don’t use the camera. Every module runs with the phone against the body or held in-hand, never pointed at the athlete. That’s a deliberate choice: it protects privacy, simplifies the testing environment, and makes the test acceptable in locker rooms and hallways where video would be inappropriate.
What about older phones?
Any phone with iOS 14+ or Android 10+ has sensors capable of running the battery. That covers effectively every phone sold in the last seven years. For the rare athlete without a capable phone, an athletic training room iPad works perfectly.