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The purpose of this paper is to assess Parkinson tremor estimating actual distance amplitude. We propose a practical, useful and simple method for evaluating Parkinson tremor with distance value. We measured resting tremor of 7 Parkinson Disease (PD) patients with triaxial accelerometer. Resting tremor of participants was diagnosed by Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) by neurologist...
A method for estimating step length during level walking using a single inertial measurement unit is proposed. A combination of an optimally filtered direct and reverse integration technique and a velocity update technique for the initial velocity values identification was implemented to reduce the effects of the acceleration signals drift. The method takes advantage of the cyclic nature of gait....
Biomechanical signals due to human movements during exercise are represented in time-frequency domain using Wigner Distribution Function (WDF). Analysis based on WDF reveals instantaneous spectral and power changes during a rhythmic exercise. Investigations were carried out on 11 healthy subjects who performed 5 cycles of sun salutation, with a body-mounted Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) as a motion...
Vibrotactile feedback about body position and velocity has been shown to be effective at reducing low frequency body sway (below about 0.5 Hz) in response to balance perturbations while standing. However, current devices cause an undesirable increase in high frequency body sway. In addition, unlike other sensory prostheses such as hearing aids, which are fine-tuned to the user, current vibrotactile...
The multiscale analysis of physiologic time series such as the RR interval time series has revealed that the entropy differs according to the scale. Furthermore, healthy subjects show different characteristics on the different time scales compared to patients. Instead of calculating entropies of the time series, the sequence of acceleration and deceleration of the instantaneous heart rate may also...
Parkinson's disease (PD) predominantly alters the motor performance of the affected individuals. In particular, the loss of dopaminergic neurons compromises the speed, the automaticity and fluidity of movements. As the disease evolves, PD patient's motion becomes slower and tremoric and the response to medication fluctuates along the day. In addition, the presence of involuntary movements deteriorates...
Wearable sensor modules are a promising approach to collecting data on functional motor activities, both for repeated and long-term assessments, as well as to investigate the transfer of therapy to activities of daily living at home, but have so far either had limited sensing capabilities, or were not laid out for long-term monitoring. This paper presents ReSense, a miniature sensor unit optimized...
This abstract presents new results on the structure and function of vestibular part of the inner ear of vertebrates with special emphasis on human behavior. First we summarize a mathematical analysis of motion of the endolymphatic fluid, justifying known approximated formulas for the cupula functioning based on a set of anatomical parameters. Some of these parameters can be estimated from the bony...
We present a set of formulas for the receptive fields of the vestibular neurons that are motivated by Galilean invariance. We show that these formulas explain non-trivial data in neurophysiology, and suggest new hypothesis to be tested in dynamical 3D conditions. Moreover our model offers a way for neuronal computing with 3D displacements, which is reputed to be hard, underlying the vestibular reflexes...
The Artificial Accommodation System is a mechatronic lens implant that will restore the ability of the human eye to accommodate. Therefore, the accommodation demand has to be acquired. One possibility is to measure the vergence angle of the eyeballs in reference to an external field. Using the earth magnetic field as reference the proof of this measuring principle was possible. Still there are drawbacks...
Smith-Waterman (S-W) algorithm is an optimal sequence alignment method and is widely used for genetic databases. This paper presents a Graphics Processing Units (CPUs) accelerated S-W implementation for protein sequence alignment. The paper proposes a new sequence database organization and several optimizations to reduce the number of memory accesses. The new implementation achieves a performance...
For people with severe spine injury, head movement recognition control has been proven to be one of the most convenient and intuitive ways to control a power wheelchair. While substantial research has been done in this area, the challenge to improve system reliability and accuracy remains due to the diversity in movement tendencies and the presence of movement artifacts. We propose a Neural-Network...
In rheumatoid arthritis (RA) it is believed that symptoms associated with the progression of the disease result in a reduction in the physical activity level of the patient. One of the key flaws of the research surrounding this hypothesis to date is the use of non-validated physical activity outcomes measures. In this study, an algorithm to estimate physical activity levels in patients as they perform...
An instrumented version of the five-times-sit-to-stand test was performed in the homes of a group of older adults, categorised as fallers or non-fallers. Tri-axial accelerometers were secured to the sternum and anterior thigh of each participant during the assessment. Accelerometer data were then used to examine the timing of the movement, as well as the root mean squared amplitude, jerk and spectral...
This paper describes a novel sensing approach for reducing power requirements of implantable vestibular prostheses. A passive, microfabricated polymeric inertial sensor for detecting angular head rotations based on the biomechanics of the human semicircular canal is described. Angular head motion is coded by deflection of a highly compliant capacitor plate placed in parallel with a rigid reference...
CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation) is known as the most basic aid in emergency situations. For successful CPR, the chest compression depth, cycle, and compressing point are important factors. In I.C.U.'s (Intensive Care Unit) and E.R.'s (Emergency Room), monitoring devices are used to monitor the chest compressions correctly. These devices use accelerometers or pressure sensors. Because the mattress...
This study performed a concurrent comparison of two walking speed estimation methods using shank- and foot-mounted inertial measurement units (IMUs). Based on the cyclic gait pattern of the stance leg during walking, data was segmented into a series of individual stride cycles. The angular velocity and linear accelerations of the shank and foot over each of these cycles were then integrated to determine...
The use of dynamic optimization as a tool to estimate joint kinematics and kinetics, and ground reaction forces using data from a single inertial measurement unit (IMU) positioned on the lower trunk was investigated. The feasibility of this approach and its accuracy was explored for the analysis of a squat task, focusing on the ankle, knee and hip joints. An optimal motor control strategy aimed at...
Ubiquitous analysis of gait is a rapidly emerging field in which research and commercial development has been focused mainly on determining spatio-temporal parameters. In this preliminary research we have developed an algorithm to determine gait metrics from a shoe mounted accelerometer and compared them with concurrent kinematic data. Subjects were tested at different walking speeds as well as an...
A novel method devoted to the reconstruction of the joint angles in a kinematic chain is described. The reconstruction algorithm is based on the fusion of the information deriving from inertial sensors (accelerometers) and conductive elastomer strain sensors. Accelerometers provide a reliable reconstruction when they are employed as inclinometers in quasi-static conditions. They suffer from artifacts...
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