New York Islanders Unveil Tiny Sensors That Help Customize Physical Therapy Programs

TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – The New York Islanders are taking a high-tech approach to physical therapy, and now you can too.

Inside the Islanders' new rehab facility at the Northwell Health Ice Center, curious members of the community who suffered recent sports injuries learned more about the portable motion-capture technology Wednesday.

"After going through a 10-year NHL career and then being retired for 10 years, it can show me my deficiencies in my body and different things I can work on," New York Islanders director of player development Eric Cairns explained. 

"It's small. It contains an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a magnetometer. That's how it collects the data," said technologist Kerri Whitehead.

"What makes it cool is the portability of it and the ease of which you can do it," Northwell Health outpatient rehab vice president Daniel Vaknin said.

Human movement patterns and muscle activity are measured.

"Through the use of the biomechanical analysis, (it can) see what our eyes can't see, essentially," Hofstra University team physical therapist Roger Gerland said.

Now that the technology is becoming more widespread, therapists can customize treatment programs for anyone.