Industrial - Bachelor
HOCUS POCUS is an innovative edge-AI, point-of-care ultrasound device that optimises pitch-side injury management. Designed for speed, accuracy, and trust, it delivers real-time musculoskeletal imaging and guided feedback, empowering coaches and physiotherapists to make faster, safer, and more confident return-to-play decisions.
Sport is deeply embedded in Australian life, with 85% of adults participating in physical activity and nearly half engaging three or more times a week. Yet this passion comes at a cost: over 62,000 sports-related hospitalisations occur each year, the majority involving lower-limb injuries such as strains and sprains. These musculoskeletal injuries not only affect performance and recovery but also carry long-term health and financial impacts. Traditional assessments rely on subjective judgement and delayed access to imaging, leaving critical decisions about return-to-play dependent on guesswork rather than evidence.
HOCUS POCUS was developed in response to these challenges, a portable, edge-AI ultrasound device that delivers real-time, on-field musculoskeletal imaging and decision-support. Designed through collaboration with athletes, coaches, and physiotherapists, it aims to bridge the gap between sideline uncertainty and clinical precision. By providing immediate, objective feedback without replacing professional diagnosis, HOCUS POCUS will empower teams to make faster, safer, and more confident return-to-play decisions.
The research combined surveys and interviews with athletes, coaches, and medical professionals to uncover the real challenges of pitch-side injury management. Two targeted surveys, one for athletes and coaches, and another for physiotherapists, exercise scientists, and surgeons, these highlighted delays in imaging, subjective assessments, and limited access to portable tools. Three in-depth interviews with an exercise scientist, a biomedical engineer, and a sonographer further revealed technical and practical barriers.
“Clients often delay or avoid imaging altogether because it’s just too much hassle, and that really impacts their rehab.”
EXERCISE SCIENTIST, 2025
“Mate, shearwave elastography is powerful, but it’s also sensitive, positioning and dorsiflexion angles need to be spot on, which can slow things down.”
SONOGRAPHER, 2025
“It’s all about capturing accurate data, making it meaningful, and ensuring safety. How do you take raw data and turn it into something a human can trust and act on?”
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER, 2025
The research revealed that injury management in sport is fragmented, with diagnosis often delayed, recovery decisions based on guesswork, and communication between coaches and clinicians inconsistent. Rather than replacing existing clinical systems, the evidence suggests an opportunity to facilitate faster, evidence-supported decision making at the point of injury.
By reframing the traditional “wait and refer” model into a real-time, data-informed process, the proposed HOCUS POCUS device aims to enable users to gather, interpret, and act on objective information instantly. Through its dual-mode interface, it is designed to bridge two worlds: rapid reassurance for coaches and athletes, and validated imaging insights for physiotherapists. In doing so, it has the potential to empower teams to make confident, safe, and timely return-to-play decisions, transforming the uncertainty of sideline assessment into clarity and control.
In order to best address the needs, challenges, and conditions identified through research, a core design philosophy was established. Its principles guided the development of HOCUS POCUS and informed every stage of the design outcome.
Sport moves fast, and so must the response. The device must be designed for immediate, on-field triage, providing results in under two minutes. It will have an intuitive workflow and AI-guided assistance to minimise user effort, ensuring clarity and confidence under pressure, when every second counts.
Return-to-play decisions are often clouded by uncertainty. Through its dual-mode interface, HOCUS POCUS must deliver actionable feedback tailored to the user with simple, guided visuals for coaches and detailed imaging data for physiotherapists. This will empower informed, consistent decision-making grounded in objective data rather than guesswork.
Recovery doesn’t stop at the moment of injury. HOCUS POCUS must track tendon stiffness, strain, and progress over time, supporting long-term rehabilitation and reducing reinjury risk. By combining edge-AI processing with secure data storage, it will help athletes and clinicians make smarter, evidence-based recovery decisions, from the field to full fitness.
From early in the research and development phase, a consistent visual and thematic language was established to unify the project and communicate its identity with clarity and intent. While exploring iconography in Illustrator, a distinctive motif of concentric ellipses emerged, evoking both the precision of ultrasound waves and the motion of a bouncing tennis ball. This became a central symbol of the design, representing rhythm, impact, and recovery, key ideas that underpin the HOCUS POCUS philosophy. The same language extends into the not only the brand logo, but also the products form, texture, and surface detailing, where subtle embossed ellipses and matte finishes reinforce tactility, durability, and visual continuity across the product.
The colour palette was deliberately chosen to complement this visual language: navy blue for trust and technical depth, tennis-ball green for energy and performance, and bone white for clinical clarity. Together, these elements form a cohesive aesthetic that bridges sport and medicine, reflecting both functionality and familiarity within athletic environments.
Early ideation explored a range of directions, from wearable sleeves and smart insoles to portable ultrasound probes. Following evaluation and feedback, the ultrasound device with built -in display concept was selected for further development, as it best aligned with the research insights. Compact, rugged, and self-contained, the pod integrates a built-in display and dual-user functionality, meeting the combined needs for portability, usability, and professional credibility across both sporting and clinical environments.
The CAD and product development phase focused on achieving a compact, ergonomic form that balanced internal architecture with user comfort and durability. Blender was used to rapidly iterate multiple design directions, exploring variations in form, geometry, and grip ergonomics before refining the final model. Prototyping progressed through foam and clay models to evaluate tactile feel and proportion, followed by high-fidelity 3D prints for assessing hand fit, button placement, and overall usability. Feedback from peers, coaches and physiotherapists validated the form and control layout, ensuring intuitive operation in demanding, fast-paced sporting environments.
Hybrid On-Court Ultrasound System: Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Device
At the heart of HOCUS POCUS lies a next-generation linear ultrasound-on-chip transducer array designed specifically for musculoskeletal applications. By miniaturising traditional ultrasound hardware into a single integrated system, the device delivers high-fidelity imaging with reduced cost, energy use, and complexity, making professional-grade assessment possible on the sideline.
Unlike cloud-based systems, all processing occurs locally on-device, ensuring immediate response times and complete data security. AI algorithms assess tendon stiffness, strain, and tissue integrity, providing rapid interpretation while preserving the clinician’s oversight.
The device adapts to its user:
Coach Mode: A simplified, guided interface with traffic-light indicators, audio prompts, and haptic alerts for fast triage and reassurance.
Pro Mode: A full diagnostic suite with B-mode imaging, shearwave elastography, quantitative measurements, and exportable data for clinical review.
A sunlight-readable AMOLED touchscreen provides immediate visual feedback in outdoor conditions. Tactile control buttons ensure usability with gloves or under pressure, while the intuitive layout minimises errors and learning time.
The device’s IP65-rated chassis and rubberised grip withstand sweat, rain, and impact. Concentric ellipse texturing reinforces the design language while improving hold stability. Every surface and contour was refined through CAD modelling and prototyping to ensure comfort and control in high-stress scenarios.
Advanced shearwave technology quantifies tendon stiffness and recovery readiness, providing objective data for rehabilitation and return-to-play decisions. Results are displayed as simple visual scales and graphs for clarity across both user modes.
A USB-C power system supports fast charging and secure data transfer to external systems. Local data encryption ensures athlete privacy, while rechargeable battery integration supports extended field use.
The hybrid-interface system, is designed to adapt to the expertise and context of its user. Whether used by a coach on the sideline or a physiotherapist in a clinical setting, each mode delivers the same data, tailored in complexity, clarity, and control. This ensures accessibility for non-medical users while maintaining the rigour professionals demand.
Animated placement cues and visual overlays direct probe positioning and motion in real time.
Instantly communicates injury severity: Green (Low Risk), Yellow (Monitor), Red (Remove from Play).
Vibration cues confirm correct contact and scan completion, reducing user error.
Displays AI confidence level (e.g., 87% certainty) to encourage clinical follow-up when needed.
Generates a timestamped summary linked to athlete ID for post-match review or physiotherapist reference.
Enables fast, safe decision-making without replacing professional assessment, empowering coaches to respond decisively with data-backed confidence.
Provides greyscale, real-time visualisation of soft-tissue structures, allowing professionals to assess ligaments, tendons, and fascia with precision. Adjustable depth and gain controls ensure image clarity across different tissue types and body regions.
Colour-coded stiffness overlays quantify tendon elasticity and load readiness (kPa), helping identify micro-tears, inflammation, or overuse strain. Real-time side-to-side comparison supports clinical judgement for rehabilitation progression and return-to-play decisions.
Automatically captures measurable data such as strain percentage, swelling volume, range of motion (ROM), and stiffness ratio. Results are displayed in numerical panels with trend graphs showing changes over time, supporting evidence-based rehabilitation tracking.
Custom scanning protocols for Achilles, ATFL, CFL, and plantar fascia injuries optimise image quality and streamline workflow. These presets automatically adjust frequency, frame rate, and measurement templates, ensuring consistency across practitioners.
A built-in trend panel visualises stiffness and recovery progression over multiple sessions. This enables physiotherapists to identify healing plateaus or re-injury risks early, providing data to adjust training loads or rehab intensity.
Embedded edge-AI algorithms assist in pattern recognition and measurement validation, flagging potential abnormalities or inconsistencies while maintaining clinician control. Each AI suggestion includes a confidence score to reinforce trust and accountability.
Professionals can mark regions of interest, capture annotated snapshots, and automatically generate a structured clinical report (PDF/DICOM) including key findings, recommendations, and timestamps for athlete tracking.
Supports encrypted export to electronic health systems via USB-C or local network, maintaining athlete data privacy and compliance with healthcare standards. Offline-first architecture ensures complete functionality without internet dependence.
Pro Mode transforms the sideline into an extension of the clinic. It enables quantitative, reproducible assessments while maintaining professional autonomy. Through its combination of imaging depth, analytical precision, and seamless data integration, it empowers practitioners to make confident, evidence-supported decisions, closing the gap between initial triage and clinical validation.
HOCUS POCUS is built around a stainless-steel internal frame, providing rigidity, impact resistance, and efficient heat dissipation for the edge-AI processor and transducer array. The linear ultrasound-on-chip system integrates signal processing directly within the probe, reducing noise and improving reliability.
The exterior features a aluminium frame with overmoulded TPU for comfort, traction, and protection, sealed to an IP65 rating for outdoor durability. A magnesium-alloy rear plate acts as a passive heat sink and structural brace. All components are secured with standard fasteners, ensuring easy disassembly, repair, and long-term serviceability — combining professional performance with practical manufacturability.
IMPACT:
During a match, an athlete sustains a suspected ankle injury after landing awkwardly. The coach immediately retrieves HOCUS POCUS from the sideline kit and which automatically launches Coach Mode, which provides a short guided animation showing probe placement. Within seconds, the device captures a live scan, automatically analysing tissue strain and stiffness. A yellow feedback indicator appears on the screen, suggesting moderate risk and recommending professional assessment.
INSIGHT:
At the clinic (or on the pitch – depending on level of competition), the physiotherapist switches to Pro Mode, accessing detailed B-mode imaging and shearwave stiffness data. Reviewing the quantitative metrics, the physio confirms that no rupture has occurred, only a mild strain. The data is logged under the athlete’s profile and securely exported for follow-up analysis. Over the next week, the player’s recovery is tracked through periodic scans, visualising improvement in tendon stiffness and range of motion. This seamless process, from incident to recovery highlights how HOCUS POCUS bridges the gap between sideline uncertainty and clinical clarity, empowering faster, safer return-to-play decisions.
The impact of HOCUS POCUS extends across every level of sport, from elite teams with established medical staff to grassroots clubs with limited access to diagnostic resources. By merging real-time imaging, edge-AI processing, and hybrid-user functionality, the device transforms how athletes, coaches, and clinicians respond to injury, empowering faster, safer, and more confident decision-making.
For community-level coaches with minimal medical support, HOCUS POCUS provides clarity and reassurance in critical moments. The intuitive Coach Mode gives immediate, easy-to-understand injury insights through guided visuals and traffic-light indicators, replacing uncertainty with confidence. This accessibility allows coaches to make safer decisions and avoid worsening injuries, without needing specialised training or equipment.
At higher levels of competition, time is performance. HOCUS POCUS delivers instant pitch-side feedback, enabling evidence-supported return-to-play decisions. By reducing dependency on delayed hospital imaging, clubs can manage player load more effectively, minimising downtime and maximising match-day availability.
For medical and allied health professionals, Pro Mode introduces portable, evidence-grade imaging that integrates seamlessly into existing workflows. Shearwave elastography and quantitative data provide measurable metrics for tracking recovery and stiffness trends, improving the precision of rehabilitation programs. The device acts as a clinical bridge, enabling professional oversight even outside the treatment room.
For athletes, the value lies in trust and transparency. Immediate imaging feedback transforms anxiety into understanding, while data-driven recovery tracking builds confidence through measurable progress. Instead of waiting for appointments or uncertain results, athletes gain ownership of their rehabilitation journey.
By decentralising access to imaging, HOCUS POCUS relieves pressure on healthcare systems, reduces unnecessary hospital visits, and improves diagnostic efficiency across sport. It democratises sports medicine, making professional-grade tools accessible to all levels of play, from local clubs to national leagues.
The long-term potential of HOCUS POCUS extends far beyond immediate pitch-side use. By capturing standardised imaging and recovery data over time, the system could contribute to a broader connected sports health network, integrating athlete data across clubs, clinics, and performance programs. This foundation of shared information would enable trend analysis, early injury prediction, and cross-team collaboration, supporting more proactive injury prevention and player management strategies at every level of sport.
As the onboard edge-AI models evolve, future iterations of HOCUS POCUS could move from simple decision-support to predictive injury forecasting. Using accumulated scan data, the system could identify subtle biomechanical changes or tendon load patterns that indicate early signs of strain — allowing for intervention before injury occurs. This shift from reactive to preventative sports medicine could redefine athlete care and extend playing longevity.
Built on scalable software architecture, the device can be adapted for integration with existing sports analytics, wearable sensors, and rehabilitation platforms. By merging motion, load, and imaging data, it opens opportunities for holistic performance tracking. This interoperability supports data continuity from the field to the clinic, ensuring consistent care and informed communication across stakeholders.
In community and youth sport, where access to imaging remains limited, HOCUS POCUS has the potential to democratise sports medicine. Its intuitive design and decision-support interface could be adopted in training programs for coaches and first responders, establishing a new standard of injury literacy and confidence at the grassroots level. This scalability ensures equitable access to technology that was once reserved for elite environments.
The development of HOCUS POCUS marks a step toward intelligent, self-contained medical devices capable of supporting on-field healthcare autonomously. As sensor precision and processing power continue to advance, the same design framework could extend to other injury types, from knee ligament assessments to upper limb rehabilitation. In doing so, HOCUS POCUS establishes a foundation for the next generation of AI-driven, connected sports health systems, transforming the future of athletic performance, safety, and recovery.
From community clubs to elite stadiums, HOCUS POCUS redefines how teams understand injury in the moment it matters most, turning impact into insight, and uncertainty into confidence.
Lewis Webb, driven by emerging technology and forward-thinking design, explores how creativity and innovation can push both design and personal boundaries. His work blends curiosity and craft to create meaningful, human-centred solutions that enhance wellbeing and redefine performance.