Research

9296 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison between Scalp EEG and Behind-the-Ear EEG for Development of a Wearable Seizure Detection System for Patients with Focal Epilepsy

by Ying Gu, Evy Cleeren, Jonathan Dan, Kasper Claes, Wim Van Paesschen, Sabine Van Huffel and Borbála Hunyadi

Sensors 2018, 18(1), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18010029 - 23 Dec 2017

Cited by 90 | Viewed by 9741

Abstract

A wearable electroencephalogram (EEG) device for continuous monitoring of patients suffering from epilepsy would provide valuable information for the management of the disease. Currently no EEG setup is small and unobtrusive enough to be used in daily life. Recording behind the ear could [...] Read more.

A wearable electroencephalogram (EEG) device for continuous monitoring of patients suffering from epilepsy would provide valuable information for the management of the disease. Currently no EEG setup is small and unobtrusive enough to be used in daily life. Recording behind the ear could prove to be a solution to a wearable EEG setup. This article examines the feasibility of recording epileptic EEG from behind the ear. It is achieved by comparison with scalp EEG recordings. Traditional scalp EEG and behind-the-ear EEG were simultaneously acquired from 12 patients with temporal, parietal, or occipital lobe epilepsy. Behind-the-ear EEG consisted of cross-head channels and unilateral channels. The analysis on Electrooculography (EOG) artifacts resulting from eye blinking showed that EOG artifacts were absent on cross-head channels and had significantly small amplitudes on unilateral channels. Temporal waveform and frequency content during seizures from behind-the-ear EEG visually resembled that from scalp EEG. Further, coherence analysis confirmed that behind-the-ear EEG acquired meaningful epileptic discharges similarly to scalp EEG. Moreover, automatic seizure detection based on support vector machine (SVM) showed that comparable seizure detection performance can be achieved using these two recordings. With scalp EEG, detection had a median sensitivity of 100% and a false detection rate of 1.14 per hour, while, with behind-the-ear EEG, it had a median sensitivity of 94.5% and a false detection rate of 0.52 per hour. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of detecting seizures from EEG recordings behind the ear for patients with focal epilepsy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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1765 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Early Detection of the Initiation of Sit-to-Stand Posture Transitions Using Orthosis-Mounted Sensors

by Abul Doulah, Xiangrong Shen and Edward Sazonov

Sensors 2017, 17(12), 2712; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17122712 - 23 Nov 2017

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4045

Abstract

Assistance during sit-to-stand (SiSt) transitions for frail elderly may be provided by powered orthotic devices. The control of the powered orthosis may be performed by the means of electromyography (EMG), which requires direct contact of measurement electrodes to the skin. The purpose of [...] Read more.

Assistance during sit-to-stand (SiSt) transitions for frail elderly may be provided by powered orthotic devices. The control of the powered orthosis may be performed by the means of electromyography (EMG), which requires direct contact of measurement electrodes to the skin. The purpose of this study was to determine if a non-EMG-based method that uses inertial sensors placed at different positions on the orthosis, and a lightweight pattern recognition algorithm may accurately identify SiSt transitions without false positives. A novel method is proposed to eliminate false positives based on a two-stage design: stage one detects the sitting posture; stage two recognizes the initiation of a SiSt transition from a sitting position. The method was validated using data from 10 participants who performed 34 different activities and posture transitions. Features were obtained from the sensor signals and then combined into lagged epochs. A reduced number of features was selected using a minimum-redundancy-maximum-relevance (mRMR) algorithm and forward feature selection. To obtain a recognition model with low computational complexity, we compared the use of an extreme learning machine (ELM) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) for both stages of the recognition algorithm. Both classifiers were able to accurately identify all posture transitions with no false positives. The average detection time was 0.19 ± 0.33 s for ELM and 0.13 ± 0.32 s for MLP. The MLP classifier exhibited less time complexity in the recognition phase compared to ELM. However, the ELM classifier presented lower computational demands in the training phase. Results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm could potentially be adopted to control a powered orthosis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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5574 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wearable Stretch Sensors for Motion Measurement of the Wrist Joint Based on Dielectric Elastomers

by Bo Huang, Mingyu Li, Tao Mei, David McCoul, Shihao Qin, Zhanfeng Zhao and Jianwen Zhao

Sensors 2017, 17(12), 2708; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17122708 - 23 Nov 2017

Cited by 76 | Viewed by 13431

Abstract

Motion capture of the human body potentially holds great significance for exoskeleton robots, human-computer interaction, sports analysis, rehabilitation research, and many other areas. Dielectric elastomer sensors (DESs) are excellent candidates for wearable human motion capture systems because of their intrinsic characteristics of softness, [...] Read more.

Motion capture of the human body potentially holds great significance for exoskeleton robots, human-computer interaction, sports analysis, rehabilitation research, and many other areas. Dielectric elastomer sensors (DESs) are excellent candidates for wearable human motion capture systems because of their intrinsic characteristics of softness, light weight, and compliance. In this paper, DESs were applied to measure all component motions of the wrist joints. Five sensors were mounted to different positions on the wrist, and each one is for one component motion. To find the best position to mount the sensors, the distribution of the muscles is analyzed. Even so, the component motions and the deformation of the sensors are coupled; therefore, a decoupling method was developed. By the decoupling algorithm, all component motions can be measured with a precision of 5°, which meets the requirements of general motion capture systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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2754 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimating Stair Running Performance Using Inertial Sensors

by Lauro V. Ojeda, Antonia M. Zaferiou, Stephen M. Cain, Rachel V. Vitali, Steven P. Davidson, Leia A. Stirling and Noel C. Perkins

Sensors 2017, 17(11), 2647; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17112647 - 17 Nov 2017

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5426

Abstract

Stair running, both ascending and descending, is a challenging aerobic exercise that many athletes, recreational runners, and soldiers perform during training. Studying biomechanics of stair running over multiple steps has been limited by the practical challenges presented while using optical-based motion tracking systems. [...] Read more.

Stair running, both ascending and descending, is a challenging aerobic exercise that many athletes, recreational runners, and soldiers perform during training. Studying biomechanics of stair running over multiple steps has been limited by the practical challenges presented while using optical-based motion tracking systems. We propose using foot-mounted inertial measurement units (IMUs) as a solution as they enable unrestricted motion capture in any environment and without need for external references. In particular, this paper presents methods for estimating foot velocity and trajectory during stair running using foot-mounted IMUs. Computational methods leverage the stationary periods occurring during the stance phase and known stair geometry to estimate foot orientation and trajectory, ultimately used to calculate stride metrics. These calculations, applied to human participant stair running data, reveal performance trends through timing, trajectory, energy, and force stride metrics. We present the results of our analysis of experimental data collected on eleven subjects. Overall, we determine that for either ascending or descending, the stance time is the strongest predictor of speed as shown by its high correlation with stride time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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3901 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Development of an IMU Integrated Clothes for Postural Monitoring Using Conductive Yarn and Interconnecting Technology

by Sung-Won Kang, Hyeob Choi, Hyung-Il Park, Byoung-Gun Choi, Hyobin Im, Dongjun Shin, Young-Giu Jung, Jun-Young Lee, Hong-Won Park, Sukyung Park and Jung-Sim Roh

Sensors 2017, 17(11), 2560; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17112560 - 07 Nov 2017

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 7199

Abstract

Spinal disease is a common yet important condition that occurs because of inappropriate posture. Prevention could be achieved by continuous posture monitoring, but most measurement systems cannot be used in daily life due to factors such as burdensome wires and large sensing modules. [...] Read more.

Spinal disease is a common yet important condition that occurs because of inappropriate posture. Prevention could be achieved by continuous posture monitoring, but most measurement systems cannot be used in daily life due to factors such as burdensome wires and large sensing modules. To improve upon these weaknesses, we developed comfortable “smart wear” for posture measurement using conductive yarn for circuit patterning and a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) for interconnections. The conductive yarn was made by twisting polyester yarn and metal filaments, and the resistance per unit length was about 0.05 Ω/cm. An embroidered circuit was made using the conductive yarn, which showed increased yield strength and uniform electrical resistance per unit length. Circuit networks of sensors and FPCBs for interconnection were integrated into clothes using a computer numerical control (CNC) embroidery process. The system was calibrated and verified by comparing the values measured by the smart wear with those measured by a motion capture camera system. Six subjects performed fixed movements and free computer work, and, with this system, we were able to measure the anterior/posterior direction tilt angle with an error of less than 4°. The smart wear does not have excessive wires, and its structure will be optimized for better posture estimation in a later study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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1849 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Wearable Magneto-Inertial System for Gait Analysis (H-Gait): Validation on Normal Weight and Overweight/Obese Young Healthy Adults

by Valentina Agostini, Laura Gastaldi, Valeria Rosso, Marco Knaflitz and Shigeru Tadano

Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2406; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102406 - 21 Oct 2017

Cited by 44 | Viewed by 6880

Abstract

Background: Wearable magneto-inertial sensors are being increasingly used to obtain human motion measurements out of the lab, although their performance in applications requiring high accuracy, such as gait analysis, are still a subject of debate. The aim of this work was to [...] Read more.

Background: Wearable magneto-inertial sensors are being increasingly used to obtain human motion measurements out of the lab, although their performance in applications requiring high accuracy, such as gait analysis, are still a subject of debate. The aim of this work was to validate a gait analysis system (H-Gait) based on magneto-inertial sensors, both in normal weight (NW) and overweight/obese (OW) subjects. The validation is performed against a reference multichannel recording system (STEP32), providing direct measurements of gait timings (through foot-switches) and joint angles in the sagittal plane (through electrogoniometers). Methods: Twenty-two young male subjects were recruited for the study (12 NW, 10 OW). After positioning body-fixed sensors of both systems, each subject was asked to walk, at a self-selected speed, over a 14-m straight path for 12 trials. Gait signals were recorded, at the same time, with the two systems. Spatio-temporal parameters, ankle, knee, and hip joint kinematics were extracted analyzing an average of 89 ± 13 gait cycles from each lower limb. Intraclass correlation coefficient and Bland-Altmann plots were used to compare H-Gait and STEP32 measurements. Changes in gait parameters and joint kinematics of OW with respect NW were also evaluated. Results: The two systems were highly consistent for cadence, while a lower agreement was found for the other spatio-temporal parameters. Ankle and knee joint kinematics is overall comparable. Joint ROMs values were slightly lower for H-Gait with respect to STEP32 for the ankle (by 1.9° for NW, and 1.6° for OW) and for the knee (by 4.1° for NW, and 1.8° for OW). More evident differences were found for hip joint, with ROMs values higher for H-Gait (by 6.8° for NW, and 9.5° for OW). NW and OW showed significant differences considering STEP32 (p = 0.0004), but not H-Gait (p = 0.06). In particular, overweight/obese subjects showed a higher cadence (55.0 vs. 52.3 strides/min) and a lower hip ROM (23.0° vs. 27.3°) than normal weight subjects. Conclusions: The two systems can be considered interchangeable for what concerns joint kinematics, except for the hip, where discrepancies were evidenced. Differences between normal and overweight/obese subjects were statistically significant using STEP32. The same tendency was observed using H-Gait. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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4307 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design of a Wireless Sensor System with the Algorithms of Heart Rate and Agility Index for Athlete Evaluation

by Meina Li and Youn Tae Kim

Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2373; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102373 - 17 Oct 2017

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 6214

Abstract

Athlete evaluation systems can effectively monitor daily training and boost performance to reduce injuries. Conventional heart-rate measurement systems can be easily affected by artifact movement, especially in the case of athletes. Significant noise can be generated owing to high-intensity activities. To improve the [...] Read more.

Athlete evaluation systems can effectively monitor daily training and boost performance to reduce injuries. Conventional heart-rate measurement systems can be easily affected by artifact movement, especially in the case of athletes. Significant noise can be generated owing to high-intensity activities. To improve the comfort for athletes and the accuracy of monitoring, we have proposed to combine robust heart rate and agility index monitoring algorithms into a small, light, and single node. A band-pass-filter-based R-wave detection algorithm was developed. The agility index was calculated by preprocessing with band-pass filtering and employing the zero-crossing detection method. The evaluation was conducted under both laboratory and field environments to verify the accuracy and reliability of the algorithm. The heart rate and agility index measurements can be wirelessly transmitted to a personal computer in real time by the ZigBee telecommunication system. The results show that the error rate of measurement of the heart rate is within 2%, which is comparable with that of the traditional wired measurement method. The sensitivity of the agility index, which could be distinguished as the activity speed, changed slightly. Thus, we confirmed that the developed algorithm could be used in an effective and safe exercise-evaluation system for athletes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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361 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Automated Epileptic Seizure Detection Based on Wearable ECG and PPG in a Hospital Environment

by Kaat Vandecasteele, Thomas De Cooman, Ying Gu, Evy Cleeren, Kasper Claes, Wim Van Paesschen, Sabine Van Huffel and Borbála Hunyadi

Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2338; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102338 - 13 Oct 2017

Cited by 130 | Viewed by 13385

Abstract

Electrocardiography has added value to automatically detect seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients. The wired hospital system is not suited for a long-term seizure detection system at home. To address this need, the performance of two wearable devices, based on electrocardiography (ECG) [...] Read more.

Electrocardiography has added value to automatically detect seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients. The wired hospital system is not suited for a long-term seizure detection system at home. To address this need, the performance of two wearable devices, based on electrocardiography (ECG) and photoplethysmography (PPG), are compared with hospital ECG using an existing seizure detection algorithm. This algorithm classifies the seizures on the basis of heart rate features, extracted from the heart rate increase. The algorithm was applied to recordings of 11 patients in a hospital setting with 701 h capturing 47 (fronto-)temporal lobe seizures. The sensitivities of the hospital system, the wearable ECG device and the wearable PPG device were respectively 57%, 70% and 32%, with corresponding false alarms per hour of 1.92, 2.11 and 1.80. Whereas seizure detection performance using the wrist-worn PPG device was considerably lower, the performance using the wearable ECG is proven to be similar to that of the hospital ECG. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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9928 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Soft Smart Garments for Lower Limb Joint Position Analysis

by Massimo Totaro, Tommaso Poliero, Alessio Mondini, Chiara Lucarotti, Giovanni Cairoli, Jesùs Ortiz and Lucia Beccai

Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2314; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102314 - 12 Oct 2017

Cited by 76 | Viewed by 8119

Abstract

Revealing human movement requires lightweight, flexible systems capable of detecting mechanical parameters (like strain and pressure) while being worn comfortably by the user, and not interfering with his/her activity. In this work we address such multifaceted challenge with the development of smart garments [...] Read more.

Revealing human movement requires lightweight, flexible systems capable of detecting mechanical parameters (like strain and pressure) while being worn comfortably by the user, and not interfering with his/her activity. In this work we address such multifaceted challenge with the development of smart garments for lower limb motion detection, like a textile kneepad and anklet in which soft sensors and readout electronics are embedded for retrieving movement of the specific joint. Stretchable capacitive sensors with a three-electrode configuration are built combining conductive textiles and elastomeric layers, and distributed around knee and ankle. Results show an excellent behavior in the ~30% strain range, hence the correlation between sensors’ responses and the optically tracked Euler angles is allowed for basic lower limb movements. Bending during knee flexion/extension is detected, and it is discriminated from any external contact by implementing in real time a low computational algorithm. The smart anklet is designed to address joint motion detection in and off the sagittal plane. Ankle dorsi/plantar flexion, adduction/abduction, and rotation are retrieved. Both knee and ankle smart garments show a high accuracy in movement detection, with a RMSE less than 4° in the worst case. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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14076 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Building IoT Services for Aging in Place Using Standard-Based IoT Platforms and Heterogeneous IoT Products

by Sheik Mohammad Mostakim Fattah, Nak-Myoung Sung, Il-Yeup Ahn, Minwoo Ryu and Jaeseok Yun

Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2311; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102311 - 11 Oct 2017

Cited by 38 | Viewed by 8728

Abstract

An aging population and human longevity is a global trend. Many developed countries are struggling with the yearly increasing healthcare cost that dominantly affects their economy. At the same time, people living with old adults suffering from a progressive brain disorder such as [...] Read more.

An aging population and human longevity is a global trend. Many developed countries are struggling with the yearly increasing healthcare cost that dominantly affects their economy. At the same time, people living with old adults suffering from a progressive brain disorder such as Alzheimer’s disease are enduring even more stress and depression than those patients while caring for them. Accordingly, seniors’ ability to live independently and comfortably in their current home for as long as possible has been crucial to reduce the societal cost for caregiving and thus give family members peace of mind, called ‘aging in place’ (AIP). In this paper we present a way of building AIP services using standard-based IoT platforms and heterogeneous IoT products. An AIP service platform is designed and created by combining previous standard-based IoT platforms in a collaborative way. A service composition tool is also created that allows people to create AIP services in an efficient way. To show practical usability of our proposed system, we choose a service scenario for medication compliance and implement a prototype service which could give old adults medication reminder appropriately at the right time (i.e., when it is time to need to take pills) through light and speaker at home but also wrist band and smartphone even outside the home. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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3534 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analyzing Sensor-Based Time Series Data to Track Changes in Physical Activity during Inpatient Rehabilitation

by Gina Sprint, Diane Cook, Douglas Weeks, Jordana Dahmen and Alyssa La Fleur

Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2219; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102219 - 27 Sep 2017

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6420

Abstract

Time series data collected from sensors can be analyzed to monitor changes in physical activity as an individual makes a substantial lifestyle change, such as recovering from an injury or illness. In an inpatient rehabilitation setting, approaches to detect and explain changes in [...] Read more.

Time series data collected from sensors can be analyzed to monitor changes in physical activity as an individual makes a substantial lifestyle change, such as recovering from an injury or illness. In an inpatient rehabilitation setting, approaches to detect and explain changes in longitudinal physical activity data collected from wearable sensors can provide value as a monitoring, research, and motivating tool. We adapt and expand our Physical Activity Change Detection (PACD) approach to analyze changes in patient activity in such a setting. We use Fitbit Charge Heart Rate devices with two separate populations to continuously record data to evaluate PACD, nine participants in a hospitalized inpatient rehabilitation group and eight in a healthy control group. We apply PACD to minute-by-minute Fitbit data to quantify changes within and between the groups. The inpatient rehabilitation group exhibited greater variability in change throughout inpatient rehabilitation for both step count and heart rate, with the greatest change occurring at the end of the inpatient hospital stay, which exceeded day-to-day changes of the control group. Our additions to PACD support effective change analysis of wearable sensor data collected in an inpatient rehabilitation setting and provide insight to patients, clinicians, and researchers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Automatic Classification of Tremor Severity in Parkinson’s Disease Using a Wearable Device

by Hyoseon Jeon, Woongwoo Lee, Hyeyoung Park, Hong Ji Lee, Sang Kyong Kim, Han Byul Kim, Beomseok Jeon and Kwang Suk Park

Sensors 2017, 17(9), 2067; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17092067 - 09 Sep 2017

Cited by 102 | Viewed by 10664 | Correction

Abstract

Although there is clinical demand for new technology that can accurately measure Parkinsonian tremors, automatic scoring of Parkinsonian tremors using machine-learning approaches has not yet been employed. This study aims to fill this gap by proposing machine-learning algorithms as a way to predict [...] Read more.

Although there is clinical demand for new technology that can accurately measure Parkinsonian tremors, automatic scoring of Parkinsonian tremors using machine-learning approaches has not yet been employed. This study aims to fill this gap by proposing machine-learning algorithms as a way to predict the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), which are similar to how neurologists rate scores in actual clinical practice. In this study, the tremor signals of 85 patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) were measured using a wrist-watch-type wearable device consisting of an accelerometer and a gyroscope. The displacement and angle signals were calculated from the measured acceleration and angular velocity, and the acceleration, angular velocity, displacement, and angle signals were used for analysis. Nineteen features were extracted from each signal, and the pairwise correlation strategy was used to reduce the number of feature dimensions. With the selected features, a decision tree (DT), support vector machine (SVM), discriminant analysis (DA), random forest (RF), and k-nearest-neighbor (kNN) algorithm were explored for automatic scoring of the Parkinsonian tremor severity. The performance of the employed classifiers was analyzed using accuracy, recall, and precision, and compared to other findings in similar studies. Finally, the limitations and plans for further study are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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6400 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wearable Devices for Classification of Inadequate Posture at Work Using Neural Networks

by Eya Barkallah, Johan Freulard, Martin J. -D. Otis, Suzy Ngomo, Johannes C. Ayena and Christian Desrosiers

Sensors 2017, 17(9), 2003; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17092003 - 01 Sep 2017

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 12872

Abstract

Inadequate postures adopted by an operator at work are among the most important risk factors in Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). Although several studies have focused on inadequate posture, there is limited information on its identification in a work context. The aim of this [...] Read more.

Inadequate postures adopted by an operator at work are among the most important risk factors in Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). Although several studies have focused on inadequate posture, there is limited information on its identification in a work context. The aim of this study is to automatically differentiate between adequate and inadequate postures using two wearable devices (helmet and instrumented insole) with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and force sensors. From the force sensors located inside the insole, the center of pressure (COP) is computed since it is considered an important parameter in the analysis of posture. In a first step, a set of 60 features is computed with a direct approach, and later reduced to eight via a hybrid feature selection. A neural network is then employed to classify the current posture of a worker, yielding a recognition rate of 90%. In a second step, an innovative graphic approach is proposed to extract three additional features for the classification. This approach represents the main contribution of this study. Combining both approaches improves the recognition rate to 95%. Our results suggest that neural network could be applied successfully for the classification of adequate and inadequate posture. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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3865 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Method for Estimating Three-Dimensional Knee Rotations Using Two Inertial Measurement Units: Validation with a Coordinate Measurement Machine

by Rachel V. Vitali, Stephen M. Cain, Ryan S. McGinnis, Antonia M. Zaferiou, Lauro V. Ojeda, Steven P. Davidson and Noel C. Perkins

Sensors 2017, 17(9), 1970; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17091970 - 27 Aug 2017

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 7192

Abstract

Three-dimensional rotations across the human knee serve as important markers of knee health and performance in multiple contexts including human mobility, worker safety and health, athletic performance, and warfighter performance. While knee rotations can be estimated using optical motion capture, that method is [...] Read more.

Three-dimensional rotations across the human knee serve as important markers of knee health and performance in multiple contexts including human mobility, worker safety and health, athletic performance, and warfighter performance. While knee rotations can be estimated using optical motion capture, that method is largely limited to the laboratory and small capture volumes. These limitations may be overcome by deploying wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs). The objective of this study is to present a new IMU-based method for estimating 3D knee rotations and to benchmark the accuracy of the results using an instrumented mechanical linkage. The method employs data from shank- and thigh-mounted IMUs and a vector constraint for the medial-lateral axis of the knee during periods when the knee joint functions predominantly as a hinge. The method is carefully validated using data from high precision optical encoders in a mechanism that replicates 3D knee rotations spanning (1) pure flexion/extension, (2) pure internal/external rotation, (3) pure abduction/adduction, and (4) combinations of all three rotations. Regardless of the movement type, the IMU-derived estimates of 3D knee rotations replicate the truth data with high confidence (RMS error

< 4 °

and correlation coefficient

r \geq 0.94

). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

A Behaviour Monitoring System (BMS) for Ambient Assisted Living

by Samih Eisa and Adriano Moreira

Sensors 2017, 17(9), 1946; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17091946 - 24 Aug 2017

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 9716

Abstract

Unusual changes in the regular daily mobility routine of an elderly person at home can be an indicator or early symptom of developing health problems. Sensor technology can be utilised to complement the traditional healthcare systems to gain a more detailed view of [...] Read more.

Unusual changes in the regular daily mobility routine of an elderly person at home can be an indicator or early symptom of developing health problems. Sensor technology can be utilised to complement the traditional healthcare systems to gain a more detailed view of the daily mobility of a person at home when performing everyday tasks. We hypothesise that data collected from low-cost sensors such as presence and occupancy sensors can be analysed to provide insights on the daily mobility habits of the elderly living alone at home and to detect routine changes. We validate this hypothesis by designing a system that automatically learns the daily room-to-room transitions and permanence habits in each room at each time of the day and generates alarm notifications when deviations are detected. We present an algorithm to process the sensors’ data streams and compute sensor-driven features that describe the daily mobility routine of the elderly as part of the developed Behaviour Monitoring System (BMS). We are able to achieve low detection delay with confirmation time that is high enough to convey the detection of a set of common abnormal situations. We illustrate and evaluate BMS with synthetic data, generated by a developed data generator that was designed to mimic different user’s mobility profiles at home, and also with a real-life dataset collected from prior research work. Results indicate BMS detects several mobility changes that can be symptoms of common health problems. The proposed system is a useful approach for learning the mobility habits at the home environment, with the potential to detect behaviour changes that occur due to health problems, and therefore, motivating progress toward behaviour monitoring and elder’s care. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Benchmarking Foot Trajectory Estimation Methods for Mobile Gait Analysis

by Julius Hannink, Malte Ollenschläger, Felix Kluge, Nils Roth, Jochen Klucken and Bjoern M. Eskofier

Sensors 2017, 17(9), 1940; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17091940 - 23 Aug 2017

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 6127

Abstract

Mobile gait analysis systems based on inertial sensing on the shoe are applied in a wide range of applications. Especially for medical applications, they can give new insights into motor impairment in, e.g., neurodegenerative disease and help objectify patient assessment. One key component [...] Read more.

Mobile gait analysis systems based on inertial sensing on the shoe are applied in a wide range of applications. Especially for medical applications, they can give new insights into motor impairment in, e.g., neurodegenerative disease and help objectify patient assessment. One key component in these systems is the reconstruction of the foot trajectories from inertial data. In literature, various methods for this task have been proposed. However, performance is evaluated on a variety of datasets due to the lack of large, generally accepted benchmark datasets. This hinders a fair comparison of methods. In this work, we implement three orientation estimation and three double integration schemes for use in a foot trajectory estimation pipeline. All methods are drawn from literature and evaluated against a marker-based motion capture reference. We provide a fair comparison on the same dataset consisting of 735 strides from 16 healthy subjects. As a result, the implemented methods are ranked and we identify the most suitable processing pipeline for foot trajectory estimation in the context of mobile gait analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

A Biological Signal-Based Stress Monitoring Framework for Children Using Wearable Devices

by Yerim Choi, Yu-Mi Jeon, Lin Wang and Kwanho Kim

Sensors 2017, 17(9), 1936; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17091936 - 23 Aug 2017

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 6097

Abstract

The safety of children has always been an important issue, and several studies have been conducted to determine the stress state of a child to ensure the safety. Audio signals and biological signals including heart rate are known to be effective for stress [...] Read more.

The safety of children has always been an important issue, and several studies have been conducted to determine the stress state of a child to ensure the safety. Audio signals and biological signals including heart rate are known to be effective for stress state detection. However, collecting those data requires specialized equipment, which is not appropriate for the constant monitoring of children, and advanced data analysis is required for accurate detection. In this regard, we propose a stress state detection framework which utilizes both audio signal and heart rate collected from wearable devices, and adopted machine learning methods for the detection. Experiments using real-world data were conducted to compare detection performances across various machine learning methods and noise levels of audio signal. Adopting the proposed framework in the real-world will contribute to the enhancement of child safety. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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10166 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Wireless ExG Interface for Patch-Type ECG Holter and EMG-Controlled Robot Hand

by Kwangmuk Lee, Yun Young Choi, Dae Jung Kim, Hee Young Chae, Kyeonghwan Park, Young Min Oh, Sung Hun Woo and Jae Joon Kim

Sensors 2017, 17(8), 1888; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081888 - 16 Aug 2017

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 8151

Abstract

This paper presents a wearable electrophysiological interface with enhanced immunity to motion artifacts. Anti-artifact schemes, including a patch-type modular structure and real-time automatic level adjustment, are proposed and verified in two wireless system prototypes of a patch-type electrocardiogram (ECG) module and an electromyogram [...] Read more.

This paper presents a wearable electrophysiological interface with enhanced immunity to motion artifacts. Anti-artifact schemes, including a patch-type modular structure and real-time automatic level adjustment, are proposed and verified in two wireless system prototypes of a patch-type electrocardiogram (ECG) module and an electromyogram (EMG)-based robot-hand controller. Their common ExG readout integrated circuit (ROIC), which is reconfigurable for multiple physiological interfaces, is designed and fabricated in a 0.18 μm CMOS process. Moreover, analog pre-processing structures based on envelope detection are integrated with one another to mitigate signal processing burdens in the digital domain effectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Activity Recognition Invariant to Sensor Orientation with Wearable Motion Sensors

by Aras Yurtman and Billur Barshan

Sensors 2017, 17(8), 1838; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081838 - 09 Aug 2017

Cited by 53 | Viewed by 6838

Abstract

Most activity recognition studies that employ wearable sensors assume that the sensors are attached at pre-determined positions and orientations that do not change over time. Since this is not the case in practice, it is of interest to develop wearable systems that operate [...] Read more.

Most activity recognition studies that employ wearable sensors assume that the sensors are attached at pre-determined positions and orientations that do not change over time. Since this is not the case in practice, it is of interest to develop wearable systems that operate invariantly to sensor position and orientation. We focus on invariance to sensor orientation and develop two alternative transformations to remove the effect of absolute sensor orientation from the raw sensor data. We test the proposed methodology in activity recognition with four state-of-the-art classifiers using five publicly available datasets containing various types of human activities acquired by different sensor configurations. While the ordinary activity recognition system cannot handle incorrectly oriented sensors, the proposed transformations allow the sensors to be worn at any orientation at a given position on the body, and achieve nearly the same activity recognition performance as the ordinary system for which the sensor units are not rotatable. The proposed techniques can be applied to existing wearable systems without much effort, by simply transforming the time-domain sensor data at the pre-processing stage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Heart Rate Detection Using Microsoft Kinect: Validation and Comparison to Wearable Devices

by Ennio Gambi, Angela Agostinelli, Alberto Belli, Laura Burattini, Enea Cippitelli, Sandro Fioretti, Paola Pierleoni, Manola Ricciuti, Agnese Sbrollini and Susanna Spinsante

Sensors 2017, 17(8), 1776; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081776 - 02 Aug 2017

Cited by 49 | Viewed by 9010

Abstract

Contactless detection is one of the new frontiers of technological innovation in the field of healthcare, enabling unobtrusive measurements of biomedical parameters. Compared to conventional methods for Heart Rate (HR) detection that employ expensive and/or uncomfortable devices, such as the Electrocardiograph (ECG) or [...] Read more.

Contactless detection is one of the new frontiers of technological innovation in the field of healthcare, enabling unobtrusive measurements of biomedical parameters. Compared to conventional methods for Heart Rate (HR) detection that employ expensive and/or uncomfortable devices, such as the Electrocardiograph (ECG) or pulse oximeter, contactless HR detection offers fast and continuous monitoring of heart activities and provides support for clinical analysis without the need for the user to wear a device. This paper presents a validation study for a contactless HR estimation method exploiting RGB (Red, Green, Blue) data from a Microsoft Kinect v2 device. This method, based on Eulerian Video Magnification (EVM), Photoplethysmography (PPG) and Videoplethysmography (VPG), can achieve performance comparable to classical approaches exploiting wearable systems, under specific test conditions. The output given by a Holter, which represents the gold-standard device used in the test for ECG extraction, is considered as the ground-truth, while a comparison with a commercial smartwatch is also included. The validation process is conducted with two modalities that differ for the availability of a priori knowledge about the subjects’ normal HR. The two test modalities provide different results. In particular, the HR estimation differs from the ground-truth by 2% when the knowledge about the subject’s lifestyle and his/her HR is considered and by 3.4% if no information about the person is taken into account. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

The Role of Heart-Rate Variability Parameters in Activity Recognition and Energy-Expenditure Estimation Using Wearable Sensors

by Heesu Park, Suh-Yeon Dong, Miran Lee and Inchan Youn

Sensors 2017, 17(7), 1698; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17071698 - 24 Jul 2017

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 6623

Abstract

Human-activity recognition (HAR) and energy-expenditure (EE) estimation are major functions in the mobile healthcare system. Both functions have been investigated for a long time; however, several challenges remain unsolved, such as the confusion between activities and the recognition of energy-consuming activities involving little [...] Read more.

Human-activity recognition (HAR) and energy-expenditure (EE) estimation are major functions in the mobile healthcare system. Both functions have been investigated for a long time; however, several challenges remain unsolved, such as the confusion between activities and the recognition of energy-consuming activities involving little or no movement. To solve these problems, we propose a novel approach using an accelerometer and electrocardiogram (ECG). First, we collected a database of six activities (sitting, standing, walking, ascending, resting and running) of 13 voluntary participants. We compared the HAR performances of three models with respect to the input data type (with none, all, or some of the heart-rate variability (HRV) parameters). The best recognition performance was 96.35%, which was obtained with some selected HRV parameters. EE was also estimated for different choices of the input data type (with or without HRV parameters) and the model type (single and activity-specific). The best estimation performance was found in the case of the activity-specific model with HRV parameters. Our findings indicate that the use of human physiological data, obtained by wearable sensors, has a significant impact on both HAR and EE estimation, which are crucial functions in the mobile healthcare system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

A Novel Spatial Feature for the Identification of Motor Tasks Using High-Density Electromyography

by Mislav Jordanić, Mónica Rojas-Martínez, Miguel Angel Mañanas, Joan Francesc Alonso and Hamid Reza Marateb

Sensors 2017, 17(7), 1597; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17071597 - 08 Jul 2017

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 6592

Abstract

Estimation of neuromuscular intention using electromyography (EMG) and pattern recognition is still an open problem. One of the reasons is that the pattern-recognition approach is greatly influenced by temporal changes in electromyograms caused by the variations in the conductivity of the skin and/or [...] Read more.

Estimation of neuromuscular intention using electromyography (EMG) and pattern recognition is still an open problem. One of the reasons is that the pattern-recognition approach is greatly influenced by temporal changes in electromyograms caused by the variations in the conductivity of the skin and/or electrodes, or physiological changes such as muscle fatigue. This paper proposes novel features for task identification extracted from the high-density electromyographic signal (HD-EMG) by applying the mean shift channel selection algorithm evaluated using a simple and fast classifier-linear discriminant analysis. HD-EMG was recorded from eight subjects during four upper-limb isometric motor tasks (flexion/extension, supination/pronation of the forearm) at three different levels of effort. Task and effort level identification showed very high classification rates in all cases. This new feature performed remarkably well particularly in the identification at very low effort levels. This could be a step towards the natural control in everyday applications where a subject could use low levels of effort to achieve motor tasks. Furthermore, it ensures reliable identification even in the presence of myoelectric fatigue and showed robustness to temporal changes in EMG, which could make it suitable in long-term applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Towards Mobile Gait Analysis: Concurrent Validity and Test-Retest Reliability of an Inertial Measurement System for the Assessment of Spatio-Temporal Gait Parameters

by Felix Kluge, Heiko Gaßner, Julius Hannink, Cristian Pasluosta, Jochen Klucken and Björn M. Eskofier

Sensors 2017, 17(7), 1522; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17071522 - 28 Jun 2017

Cited by 105 | Viewed by 9405

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the concurrent validity and test–retest reliability of a sensor-based gait analysis system. Eleven healthy subjects and four Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients were asked to complete gait tasks whilst wearing two inertial measurement units at their [...] Read more.

The purpose of this study was to assess the concurrent validity and test–retest reliability of a sensor-based gait analysis system. Eleven healthy subjects and four Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients were asked to complete gait tasks whilst wearing two inertial measurement units at their feet. The extracted spatio-temporal parameters of 1166 strides were compared to those extracted from a reference camera-based motion capture system concerning concurrent validity. Test–retest reliability was assessed for five healthy subjects at three different days in a two week period. The two systems were highly correlated for all gait parameters (

r > 0.93

). The bias for stride time was

0 \pm 16

ms and for stride length was

1.4 \pm 6.7

cm. No systematic range dependent errors were observed and no significant changes existed between healthy subjects and PD patients. Test-retest reliability was excellent for all parameters (intraclass correlation (ICC) > 0.81) except for gait velocity (ICC > 0.55). The sensor-based system was able to accurately capture spatio-temporal gait parameters as compared to the reference camera-based system for normal and impaired gait. The system’s high retest reliability renders the use in recurrent clinical measurements and in long-term applications feasible. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Public Datasets for Wearable Fall Detection Systems

by Eduardo Casilari, José-Antonio Santoyo-Ramón and José-Manuel Cano-García

Sensors 2017, 17(7), 1513; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17071513 - 27 Jun 2017

Cited by 107 | Viewed by 12001

Abstract

Due to the boom of wireless handheld devices such as smartwatches and smartphones, wearable Fall Detection Systems (FDSs) have become a major focus of attention among the research community during the last years. The effectiveness of a wearable FDS must be contrasted against [...] Read more.

Due to the boom of wireless handheld devices such as smartwatches and smartphones, wearable Fall Detection Systems (FDSs) have become a major focus of attention among the research community during the last years. The effectiveness of a wearable FDS must be contrasted against a wide variety of measurements obtained from inertial sensors during the occurrence of falls and Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). In this regard, the access to public databases constitutes the basis for an open and systematic assessment of fall detection techniques. This paper reviews and appraises twelve existing available data repositories containing measurements of ADLs and emulated falls envisaged for the evaluation of fall detection algorithms in wearable FDSs. The analysis of the found datasets is performed in a comprehensive way, taking into account the multiple factors involved in the definition of the testbeds deployed for the generation of the mobility samples. The study of the traces brings to light the lack of a common experimental benchmarking procedure and, consequently, the large heterogeneity of the datasets from a number of perspectives (length and number of samples, typology of the emulated falls and ADLs, characteristics of the test subjects, features and positions of the sensors, etc.). Concerning this, the statistical analysis of the samples reveals the impact of the sensor range on the reliability of the traces. In addition, the study evidences the importance of the selection of the ADLs and the need of categorizing the ADLs depending on the intensity of the movements in order to evaluate the capability of a certain detection algorithm to discriminate falls from ADLs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Emotional Self-Regulation of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Smartwatches for Monitoring and Interaction

by Juan C. Torrado, Javier Gomez and Germán Montoro

Sensors 2017, 17(6), 1359; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17061359 - 11 Jun 2017

Cited by 69 | Viewed by 14076

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the needs of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to have a pervasive, feasible and non-stigmatizing form of assistance in their emotional self-regulation, in order to ease certain behavioral issues that undermine their mental health throughout their life. [...] Read more.

In this paper, we analyze the needs of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to have a pervasive, feasible and non-stigmatizing form of assistance in their emotional self-regulation, in order to ease certain behavioral issues that undermine their mental health throughout their life. We argue the potential of recent widespread wearables, and more specifically smartwatches, to achieve this goal. Then, a smartwatch system that implements a wide range of self-regulation strategies and infers outburst patterns from physiological signals and movement is presented, along with an authoring tool for smartphones that is to be used by caregivers or family members to create and edit these strategies, in an adaptive way. We conducted an intensive experiment with two individuals with ASD who showed varied, representative behavioral responses to their emotional dysregulation. Both users were able to employ effective, customized emotional self-regulation strategies by means of the system, recovering from the majority of mild stress episodes and temper tantrums experienced in the nine days of experiment in their classroom. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

A Cuffless Blood Pressure Measurement Based on the Impedance Plethysmography Technique

by Shing-Hong Liu, Da-Chuan Cheng and Chun-Hung Su

Sensors 2017, 17(5), 1176; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17051176 - 21 May 2017

Cited by 41 | Viewed by 10077

Abstract

In the last decade, cuffless blood pressure measurement technology has been widely studied because it could be applied to a wearable apparatus. Electrocardiography (ECG), photo-plethysmography (PPG), and phonocardiography are always used to detect the pulse transit time (PTT) because the changed tendencies of [...] Read more.

In the last decade, cuffless blood pressure measurement technology has been widely studied because it could be applied to a wearable apparatus. Electrocardiography (ECG), photo-plethysmography (PPG), and phonocardiography are always used to detect the pulse transit time (PTT) because the changed tendencies of the PTT and blood pressure have a negative relationship. In this study, the PPG signal was replaced by the impedance plethysmography (IPG) signal and was used to detect the PTT. The placement and direction of the electrode array for the IPG measurement were discussed. Then, we designed an IPG ring that could measure an accurate IPG signal. Twenty healthy subjects participated in this study. The changes in blood pressure after exercise were evaluated through the changes of the PTT. The results showed that the change of the systolic pressure had a better relationship with the change of the PTT_IPG than that of the PTT_PPG (r = 0.700 vs. r = 0.450). Moreover, the IPG ring with spot electrodes would be more suitable to develop with the wearable cuffless blood pressure monitor than the PPG sensor. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Characterizing Dynamic Walking Patterns and Detecting Falls with Wearable Sensors Using Gaussian Process Methods

by Taehwan Kim, Jeongho Park, Seongman Heo, Keehoon Sung and Jooyoung Park

Sensors 2017, 17(5), 1172; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17051172 - 20 May 2017

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5105

Abstract

By incorporating a growing number of sensors and adopting machine learning technologies, wearable devices have recently become a prominent health care application domain. Among the related research topics in this field, one of the most important issues is detecting falls while walking. Since [...] Read more.

By incorporating a growing number of sensors and adopting machine learning technologies, wearable devices have recently become a prominent health care application domain. Among the related research topics in this field, one of the most important issues is detecting falls while walking. Since such falls may lead to serious injuries, automatically and promptly detecting them during daily use of smartphones and/or smart watches is a particular need. In this paper, we investigate the use of Gaussian process (GP) methods for characterizing dynamic walking patterns and detecting falls while walking with built-in wearable sensors in smartphones and/or smartwatches. For the task of characterizing dynamic walking patterns in a low-dimensional latent feature space, we propose a novel approach called auto-encoded Gaussian process dynamical model, in which we combine a GP-based state space modeling method with a nonlinear dimensionality reduction method in a unique manner. The Gaussian process methods are fit for this task because one of the most import strengths of the Gaussian process methods is its capability of handling uncertainty in the model parameters. Also for detecting falls while walking, we propose to recycle the latent samples generated in training the auto-encoded Gaussian process dynamical model for GP-based novelty detection, which can lead to an efficient and seamless solution to the detection task. Experimental results show that the combined use of these GP-based methods can yield promising results for characterizing dynamic walking patterns and detecting falls while walking with the wearable sensors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

An Adaptive Orientation Estimation Method for Magnetic and Inertial Sensors in the Presence of Magnetic Disturbances

by Bingfei Fan, Qingguo Li, Chao Wang and Tao Liu

Sensors 2017, 17(5), 1161; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17051161 - 19 May 2017

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 6456

Abstract

Magnetic and inertial sensors have been widely used to estimate the orientation of human segments due to their low cost, compact size and light weight. However, the accuracy of the estimated orientation is easily affected by external factors, especially when the sensor is [...] Read more.

Magnetic and inertial sensors have been widely used to estimate the orientation of human segments due to their low cost, compact size and light weight. However, the accuracy of the estimated orientation is easily affected by external factors, especially when the sensor is used in an environment with magnetic disturbances. In this paper, we propose an adaptive method to improve the accuracy of orientation estimations in the presence of magnetic disturbances. The method is based on existing gradient descent algorithms, and it is performed prior to sensor fusion algorithms. The proposed method includes stationary state detection and magnetic disturbance severity determination. The stationary state detection makes this method immune to magnetic disturbances in stationary state, while the magnetic disturbance severity determination helps to determine the credibility of magnetometer data under dynamic conditions, so as to mitigate the negative effect of the magnetic disturbances. The proposed method was validated through experiments performed on a customized three-axis instrumented gimbal with known orientations. The error of the proposed method and the original gradient descent algorithms were calculated and compared. Experimental results demonstrate that in stationary state, the proposed method is completely immune to magnetic disturbances, and in dynamic conditions, the error caused by magnetic disturbance is reduced by 51.2% compared with original MIMU gradient descent algorithm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Convergent Validity of a Wearable Sensor System for Measuring Sub-Task Performance during the Timed Up-and-Go Test

by James Beyea, Chris A. McGibbon, Andrew Sexton, Jeremy Noble and Colleen O’Connell

Sensors 2017, 17(4), 934; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17040934 - 23 Apr 2017

Cited by 50 | Viewed by 6420

Abstract

Background: The timed-up-and-go test (TUG) is one of the most commonly used tests of physical function in clinical practice and for research outcomes. Inertial sensors have been used to parse the TUG test into its composite phases (rising, walking, turning, etc.), but have [...] Read more.

Background: The timed-up-and-go test (TUG) is one of the most commonly used tests of physical function in clinical practice and for research outcomes. Inertial sensors have been used to parse the TUG test into its composite phases (rising, walking, turning, etc.), but have not validated this approach against an optoelectronic gold-standard, and to our knowledge no studies have published the minimal detectable change of these measurements. Methods: Eleven adults performed the TUG three times each under normal and slow walking conditions, and 3 m and 5 m walking distances, in a 12-camera motion analysis laboratory. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) with tri-axial accelerometers and gyroscopes was worn on the upper-torso. Motion analysis marker data and IMU signals were analyzed separately to identify the six main TUG phases: sit-to-stand, 1st walk, 1st turn, 2nd walk, 2nd turn, and stand-to-sit, and the absolute agreement between two systems analyzed using intra-class correlation (ICC, model 2) analysis. The minimal detectable change (MDC) within subjects was also calculated for each TUG phase. Results: The overall difference between TUG sub-tasks determined using 3D motion capture data and the IMU sensor data was <0.5 s. For all TUG distances and speeds, the absolute agreement was high for total TUG time and walk times (ICC > 0.90), but less for chair activity (ICC range 0.5–0.9) and typically poor for the turn time (ICC < 0.4). MDC values for total TUG time ranged between 2–4 s or 12–22% of the TUG time measurement. MDC of the sub-task times were higher proportionally, being 20–60% of the sub-task duration. Conclusions: We conclude that a commercial IMU can be used for quantifying the TUG phases with accuracy sufficient for clinical applications; however, the MDC when using inertial sensors is not necessarily improved over less sophisticated measurement tools. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Intelligent Medical Garments with Graphene-Functionalized Smart-Cloth ECG Sensors

by Murat Kaya Yapici and Tamador Elboshra Alkhidir

Sensors 2017, 17(4), 875; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17040875 - 16 Apr 2017

Cited by 120 | Viewed by 13013

Abstract

Biopotential signals are recorded mostly by using sticky, pre-gelled electrodes, which are not ideal for wearable, point-of-care monitoring where the usability of the personalized medical device depends critically on the level of comfort and wearability of the electrodes. We report a fully-wearable medical [...] Read more.

Biopotential signals are recorded mostly by using sticky, pre-gelled electrodes, which are not ideal for wearable, point-of-care monitoring where the usability of the personalized medical device depends critically on the level of comfort and wearability of the electrodes. We report a fully-wearable medical garment for mobile monitoring of cardiac biopotentials from the wrists or the neck with minimum restriction to regular clothing habits. The wearable prototype is based on elastic bands with graphene functionalized, textile electrodes and battery-powered, low-cost electronics for signal acquisition and wireless transmission. Comparison of the electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings obtained from the wearable prototype against conventional wet electrodes indicate excellent conformity and spectral coherence among the two signals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Blockwise PPG Enhancement Based on Time-Variant Zero-Phase Harmonic Notch Filtering

by Chanki Park, Hyunsoon Shin and Boreom Lee

Sensors 2017, 17(4), 860; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17040860 - 14 Apr 2017

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 5819

Abstract

So far, many approaches have been developed for motion artifact (MA) reduction from photoplethysmogram (PPG). Specifically, single-input MA reduction methods are useful to apply wearable and mobile healthcare systems because of their low hardware costs and simplicity. However, most of them are insufficiently [...] Read more.

So far, many approaches have been developed for motion artifact (MA) reduction from photoplethysmogram (PPG). Specifically, single-input MA reduction methods are useful to apply wearable and mobile healthcare systems because of their low hardware costs and simplicity. However, most of them are insufficiently developed to be used in real-world situations, and they suffer from a phase distortion problem. In this study, we propose a novel single-input MA reduction algorithm based on time-variant forward-backward harmonic notch filtering. To verify the proposed method, we collected real PPG data corrupted by MA and compared it with existing single-input MA reduction methods. In conclusion, the proposed zero-phase line enhancer (ZLE) was found to be superior for MA reduction and exhibited zero phase response. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Minimized Bolus-Type Wireless Sensor Node with a Built-In Three-Axis Acceleration Meter for Monitoring a Cow’s Rumen Conditions

by Hirofumi Nogami, Shozo Arai, Hironao Okada, Lan Zhan and Toshihiro Itoh

Sensors 2017, 17(4), 687; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17040687 - 27 Mar 2017

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 7361

Abstract

Monitoring rumen conditions in cows is important because a dysfunctional rumen system may cause death. Sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is a typical disease in cows, and is characterized by repeated periods of low ruminal pH. SARA is regarded as a trigger for rumen [...] Read more.

Monitoring rumen conditions in cows is important because a dysfunctional rumen system may cause death. Sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is a typical disease in cows, and is characterized by repeated periods of low ruminal pH. SARA is regarded as a trigger for rumen atony, rumenitis, and abomasal displacement, which may cause death. In previous studies, rumen conditions were evaluated by wireless sensor nodes with pH measurement capability. The primary advantage of the pH sensor is its ability to continuously measure ruminal pH. However, these sensor nodes have short lifetimes since they are limited by the finite volume of the internal liquid of the reference electrode. Mimicking rumen atony, we attempt to evaluate the rumen condition using wireless sensor nodes with three-axis accelerometers. The theoretical life span of such sensor nodes depends mainly on the transmission frequency of acceleration data and the size of the battery, and the proposed sensor nodes are 30.0 mm in diameter and 70.0 mm in length and have a life span of over 600 days. Using the sensor nodes, we compare the rumen motility of the force transducer measurement with the three-axis accelerometer data. As a result, we can detect discriminative movement of rumen atony. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Quantifying Variation in Gait Features from Wearable Inertial Sensors Using Mixed Effects Models

by Kellen Garrison Cresswell, Yongyun Shin and Shanshan Chen

Sensors 2017, 17(3), 466; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17030466 - 25 Feb 2017

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5279

Abstract

The emerging technology of wearable inertial sensors has shown its advantages in collecting continuous longitudinal gait data outside laboratories. This freedom also presents challenges in collecting high-fidelity gait data. In the free-living environment, without constant supervision from researchers, sensor-based gait features are susceptible [...] Read more.

The emerging technology of wearable inertial sensors has shown its advantages in collecting continuous longitudinal gait data outside laboratories. This freedom also presents challenges in collecting high-fidelity gait data. In the free-living environment, without constant supervision from researchers, sensor-based gait features are susceptible to variation from confounding factors such as gait speed and mounting uncertainty, which are challenging to control or estimate. This paper is one of the first attempts in the field to tackle such challenges using statistical modeling. By accepting the uncertainties and variation associated with wearable sensor-based gait data, we shift our efforts from detecting and correcting those variations to modeling them statistically. From gait data collected on one healthy, non-elderly subject during 48 full-factorial trials, we identified four major sources of variation, and quantified their impact on one gait outcome—range per cycle—using a random effects model and a fixed effects model. The methodology developed in this paper lays the groundwork for a statistical framework to account for sources of variation in wearable gait data, thus facilitating informative statistical inference for free-living gait analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Open AccessArticle

Data Collection and Analysis Using Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Knee Range of Motion after Total Knee Arthroplasty

by Chih-Yen Chiang, Kun-Hui Chen, Kai-Chun Liu, Steen Jun-Ping Hsu and Chia-Tai Chan

Sensors 2017, 17(2), 418; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17020418 - 22 Feb 2017

Cited by 64 | Viewed by 8324

Abstract

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the most common treatment for degenerative osteoarthritis of that articulation. However, either in rehabilitation clinics or in hospital wards, the knee range of motion (ROM) can currently only be assessed using a goniometer. In order to provide continuous [...] Read more.

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the most common treatment for degenerative osteoarthritis of that articulation. However, either in rehabilitation clinics or in hospital wards, the knee range of motion (ROM) can currently only be assessed using a goniometer. In order to provide continuous and objective measurements of knee ROM, we propose the use of wearable inertial sensors to record the knee ROM during the recovery progress. Digitalized and objective data can assist the surgeons to control the recovery status and flexibly adjust rehabilitation programs during the early acute inpatient stage. The more knee flexion ROM regained during the early inpatient period, the better the long-term knee recovery will be and the sooner early discharge can be achieved. The results of this work show that the proposed wearable sensor approach can provide an alternative for continuous monitoring and objective assessment of knee ROM recovery progress for TKA patients compared to the traditional goniometer measurements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Review

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Open AccessReview

Fall Prediction and Prevention Systems: Recent Trends, Challenges, and Future Research Directions

by Ramesh Rajagopalan, Irene Litvan and Tzyy-Ping Jung

Sensors 2017, 17(11), 2509; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17112509 - 01 Nov 2017

Cited by 107 | Viewed by 18760

Abstract

Fall prediction is a multifaceted problem that involves complex interactions between physiological, behavioral, and environmental factors. Existing fall detection and prediction systems mainly focus on physiological factors such as gait, vision, and cognition, and do not address the multifactorial nature of falls. In [...] Read more.

Fall prediction is a multifaceted problem that involves complex interactions between physiological, behavioral, and environmental factors. Existing fall detection and prediction systems mainly focus on physiological factors such as gait, vision, and cognition, and do not address the multifactorial nature of falls. In addition, these systems lack efficient user interfaces and feedback for preventing future falls. Recent advances in internet of things (IoT) and mobile technologies offer ample opportunities for integrating contextual information about patient behavior and environment along with physiological health data for predicting falls. This article reviews the state-of-the-art in fall detection and prediction systems. It also describes the challenges, limitations, and future directions in the design and implementation of effective fall prediction and prevention systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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Other

Jump to: Research, Review

166 KiB

Open AccessCorrection

Correction: Automatic Classification of Tremor Severity in Parkinson’s Disease Using a Wearable Device. Sensors 2017, 17, 2067

by Hyoseon Jeon, Woongwoo Lee, Hyeyoung Park, Hong Ji Lee, Sang Kyong Kim, Han Byul Kim, Beomseok Jeon and Kwang Suk Park

Sensors 2018, 18(1), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18010033 - 24 Dec 2017

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2926

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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable and Ambient Sensors for Healthcare and Wellness Applications)

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