'I made an AI-controlled airbag brace to prevent more dreams being dashed'

After his dreams of becoming a professional basketball player were shattered by injury, Kylin Shaw set him self another goal- to save others from the same fate.

He invented a knee brace which rather than protecting the joint by restricting it, activates by inflating an airbag before an injury occurs.

His product, which has already been pre-ordered by China's Olympic Association and is set to be tested with an English Premier League football club, could prevent up to 80 percent of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, Shaw claims.

Cruciate ligament injuries can be career threatening and often require lengthy recovery periods of recovery as well as surgery. Women footballers are particularly susceptible.

Together with his Hippo Exoskeleton co-founder Bhavy Metakar, Shaw designed the new knee brace while studying at the London School of Economics.

It uses two sensors, positioned at the top and bottom, to monitor joint movement. Unlike traditional designs the team incorporated advanced sensors and AI technology to detect when the knee is nearing a dangerous threshold.

Instead of limiting the range of motion, the brace remains flexible and only activates by inflating an airbag milliseconds before an injury is about to occur, offering protection precisely when it's needed without hindering an athlete's performance. The airbag is said to deploy in under 25 milliseconds—much faster than the 60 milliseconds it takes for a ligament to rupture.

"Starting from the UK, I want to expand the market to America and Australia, as they have a big sport," Shaw told CGTN Europe.

So far, the weight of product is 107 grams, and he is working to reduce it further below 80 grams, far less than alternatives incorporating metal and thick padding.

Dream reconstructed

Inspired by NBA star Jeremy Lin, Shaw once hoped of becoming a professional sportsman. However, during high school, a serious ACL injury put an end to his dreams.

The Chinese-born entrepreneur had gone to the U.S. in pursuit of a career in sports then moved to London to study. That is where he brought his new project to life.

Shaw had learned coding aged 16 and went on to become the youngest product manager for a technology company in Shenzhen, China. 

His first entrepreneurial adventure was to launch the Woohoo App, a social platform similar to what was then Twitter for teenagers. 

Now he hopes his new venture can be tranformative on a completely different scale.

"It's surreal to think that something I started out of my own pain could be helping others at such a large scale," he observes.

[This article was corrected to remove outdated funding figures]