Definition of Digital Image Correlation (DIC) measurements for breast kinematics

This research addresses the problem of female participation in sport. More specifically defining breast measurement and movement to improve knowledge into why this is a barrier for a lot of women being able to exercise comfortably. Within the sporting community there has been a considerable effort to make sport and physical activity more accessible to females around the world (UN Women, 2020). National governments and industry alike are moving towards the same goal, 'Sport for all', with various aligned goals within this of a healthier and more active nation. This ongoing theme is the underpinning ethos for this research.

The issue of female participation in sport has many facets and in recent years through surface level research, several issues have been highlighted and some are in the early stages of being addressed. This includes practical limitations such as timings, childcare etc. which Sport England and other national governing bodies have given funding and opportunities for childcare during some exercise classes to help combat these types of issues.

Factors from national studies related to this research studentship align to bodily discomfort and perception of 'wobble', with the impact this has on engagement in sport. Specifically, this research focuses on breast pain and movement, as a key part of the body with limited mapping, and significant variance depending on different demographic and lifestyle factors. Breast pain has been said to affect up to 60% of women and during exercise 72% of females have reported experiencing breast pain. Existing methods to measure breast kinematics and resulting discomfort rely on global measurement systems such as infrared marker tracking to measure and track key breast and body features over time. Whilst this method gives opportunities to look at breast kinematics in relation to other body or running factors, a small number of points are measured, and large assumptions are made on the location of these points to represent a moving mass on the torso.

This research studentship outlines the development of a high-resolution digital image correlation system and stereophotogrammetry, that focuses on the breast within a specific field of view. This methodology provides thousands of data points on the chest to investigate how different areas of the breast move across different exercises, with interventions investigated for support and reduced discomfort. From this data, key metrics such as displacement, velocity, acceleration and strain of breast motion can be analysed to identify further areas of investigation.

This project has included significant optimisation phases to define the configuration and measurement uncertainty of the system and will continue to investigate what bodily variances can be captured and successfully measured, in relation to the aim and scope of quantifying breast kinematics for improved breast support during exercise. This research has included thorough participant trials, to measure and quantify the impacts of different types of motions, to further explore their impacts on breast acceleration and velocity.