2nd Annual Graduate Alumni Recognition Day
"Innovations in Biomechanics"
Gideon Ariel is Founder and Chief Executive of the Board of Ariel Dynamics, Inc. He is a former Olympic athlete, and completed his graduate and post-doctoral work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he received a Ph.D. in Exercise Science (1972) and Computer Science (1976). He has published numerous scientific papers, holds 29 patents, (including one on variable resistance which is the basis of most modem exercise equipment), served as consultant to many of the country's leading companies, founded an independent laboratory devoted to biomechanical research relating to human performance, and was chairman of the U.S. Olympic Biomechanics Committee.
One of his consulting efforts for Universal Gym in the late 1960's and early 1970's resulted in the first mechanism which enabled a fixed weight stack to vary the resistance while the individual exercised. This patent covered the variable resistance mechanisms as well as many cam applications. Pursuing his interests in exercise and computerized technology inevitably led Gideon Ariel to invent an exercise system that was actually controlled, not merely monitored, by a computer. This invention, the first ever Computerized Exercise System, became known as the "CES." In typical Ariel fashion, he has created a completely new, unique Resistive Exercise Dynamometer (RED), which has recently been introduced to the public.
Dr. Ariel developed the first frame-grabber board for video to give the user the ability to store video images on the computer’s hard disk. Other innovations developed or incorporated into the system included more choices of smoothing algorithms, including polynomial, cubic and quintic splines, and various filters, which could be applied to different activities at the user's discretion. There is continuous development on the laptop system, a mechanism that allows panning by one or more cameras and a now 120 Hz camera.
Today, Ariel technology is being used by hospitals and physical therapy and rehabilitation clinics, leading universities, as well as governmental and scientific institutions such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force.