scholarly journals Inertial sensor-based centripetal acceleration as a correlate for lateral margin of stability during walking and turning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C. Fino ◽  
Fay B. Horak ◽  
Carolin Curtze
Keyword(s):  
Lumbar Spine ◽  
Mechanical Stability ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Center Of Mass ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Centripetal Acceleration ◽  
Margin Of Stability ◽  
Subsequent Step ◽  
Single Sensor

AbstractThere is growing interest in using inertial sensors to continuously monitor gait during free-living mobility. Inertial sensors can provide many gait measures, but they struggle to capture the spatial stability of the center-of-mass due to limitations estimating sensor-to-sensor distance. While the margin of stability (MoS) is an established outcome describing the instantaneous mechanical stability of gait relating to fall-risk, methods to estimate the MoS from inertial sensors have been lacking. Here, we developed and tested a framework, based on centripetal acceleration, to determine a correlate for the lateral MoS using inertial sensors during walking with or without turning. Using three synchronized sensors located bilaterally on the feet and lumbar spine, the average centripetal acceleration over the subsequent step can be used as a correlate for lateral MoS. Relying only on a single sensor on the lumbar spine yielded similar results if the stance foot can be determined from other means. Additionally, the centripetal acceleration correlate of lateral MoS demonstrates clear differences between walking and turning, inside and outside turning limbs, and speed. While limitations and assumptions need to be considered when implemented in practice, this method presents a novel correlate for the lateral MoS during walking and turning using inertial sensors, although further validation is required for other activities and populations.

scholarly journals Estimation of Human Center of Mass Position through the Inertial Sensors-Based Methods in Postural Tasks: An Accuracy Evaluation

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Germanotta ◽  
Ilaria Mileti ◽  
Ilaria Conforti ◽  
Zaccaria Del Prete ◽  
Irene Aprile ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Center Of Mass ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Biomechanical Model ◽  
Lower Limbs ◽  
Accuracy Evaluation ◽  
Postural Tasks ◽  
Single Sensor ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Displacement Based

The estimation of the body’s center of mass (CoM) trajectory is typically obtained using force platforms, or optoelectronic systems (OS), bounding the assessment inside a laboratory setting. The use of magneto-inertial measurement units (MIMUs) allows for more ecological evaluations, and previous studies proposed methods based on either a single sensor or a sensors’ network. In this study, we compared the accuracy of two methods based on MIMUs. Body CoM was estimated during six postural tasks performed by 15 healthy subjects, using data collected by a single sensor on the pelvis (Strapdown Integration Method, SDI), and seven sensors on the pelvis and lower limbs (Biomechanical Model, BM). The accuracy of the two methods was compared in terms of RMSE and estimation of posturographic parameters, using an OS as reference. The RMSE of the SDI was lower in tasks with little or no oscillations, while the BM outperformed in tasks with greater CoM displacement. Moreover, higher correlation coefficients were obtained between the posturographic parameters obtained with the BM and the OS. Our findings showed that the estimation of CoM displacement based on MIMU was reasonably accurate, and the use of the inertial sensors network methods should be preferred to estimate the kinematic parameters.

scholarly journals Re-Enactment as a Method to Reproduce Real-World Fall Events Using Inertial Sensor Data: Development and Usability Study

10.2196/13961 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. e13961
Author(s):  
Kim Sarah Sczuka ◽  
Lars Schwickert ◽  
Clemens Becker ◽  
Jochen Klenk
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Independent Living ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Center Of Mass ◽  
Fall Detection ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Movement Behavior ◽  
The Real

Background Falls are a common health problem, which in the worst cases can lead to death. To develop reliable fall detection algorithms as well as suitable prevention interventions, it is important to understand circumstances and characteristics of real-world fall events. Although falls are common, they are seldom observed, and reports are often biased. Wearable inertial sensors provide an objective approach to capture real-world fall signals. However, it is difficult to directly derive visualization and interpretation of body movements from the fall signals, and corresponding video data is rarely available. Objective The re-enactment method uses available information from inertial sensors to simulate fall events, replicate the data, validate the simulation, and thereby enable a more precise description of the fall event. The aim of this paper is to describe this method and demonstrate the validity of the re-enactment approach. Methods Real-world fall data, measured by inertial sensors attached to the lower back, were selected from the Fall Repository for the Design of Smart and Self-Adaptive Environments Prolonging Independent Living (FARSEEING) database. We focused on well-described fall events such as stumbling to be re-enacted under safe conditions in a laboratory setting. For the purposes of exemplification, we selected the acceleration signal of one fall event to establish a detailed simulation protocol based on identified postures and trunk movement sequences. The subsequent re-enactment experiments were recorded with comparable inertial sensor configurations as well as synchronized video cameras to analyze the movement behavior in detail. The re-enacted sensor signals were then compared with the real-world signals to adapt the protocol and repeat the re-enactment method if necessary. The similarity between the simulated and the real-world fall signals was analyzed with a dynamic time warping algorithm, which enables the comparison of two temporal sequences varying in speed and timing. Results A fall example from the FARSEEING database was used to show the feasibility of producing a similar sensor signal with the re-enactment method. Although fall events were heterogeneous concerning chronological sequence and curve progression, it was possible to reproduce a good approximation of the motion of a person’s center of mass during fall events based on the available sensor information. Conclusions Re-enactment is a promising method to understand and visualize the biomechanics of inertial sensor-recorded real-world falls when performed in a suitable setup, especially if video data is not available.

scholarly journals Ambulatory Assessment of the Dynamic Margin of Stability Using an Inertial Sensor Network

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (19) ◽  
pp. 4117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelangelo Guaitolini ◽  
Federica Aprigliano ◽  
Andrea Mannini ◽  
Silvestro Micera ◽  
Vito Monaco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Balance Control ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Center Of Mass ◽  
The Body ◽  
Lower Limbs ◽  
Measurement Unit ◽  
Margin Of Stability ◽  
Walking Velocity ◽  
Body Center ◽  
Base Of Support

Loss of stability is a precursor to falling and therefore represents a leading cause of injury, especially in fragile people. Thus, dynamic stability during activities of daily living (ADLs) needs to be considered to assess balance control and fall risk. The dynamic margin of stability (MOS) is often used as an indicator of how the body center of mass is located and moves relative to the base of support. In this work, we propose a magneto-inertial measurement unit (MIMU)-based method to assess the MOS of a gait. Six young healthy subjects were asked to walk on a treadmill at different velocities while wearing MIMUs on their lower limbs and pelvis. We then assessed the MOS by computing the lower body displacement with respect to the leading inverse kinematics approach. The results were compared with those obtained using a camera-based system in terms of root mean square deviation (RMSD) and correlation coefficient (ρ). We obtained a RMSD of ≤1.80 cm and ρ ≥ 0.85 for each walking velocity. The findings revealed that our method is comparable to camera-based systems in terms of accuracy, suggesting that it may represent a strategy to assess stability during ADLs in unstructured environments.

mTeeth

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Sayma Akther ◽  
Nazir Saleheen ◽  
Mithun Saha ◽  
Vivek Shetty ◽  
Santosh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Oral Diseases ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Manual Toothbrush ◽  
The Impact

Ensuring that all the teeth surfaces are adequately covered during daily brushing can reduce the risk of several oral diseases. In this paper, we propose the mTeeth model to detect teeth surfaces being brushed with a manual toothbrush in the natural free-living environment using wrist-worn inertial sensors. To unambiguously label sensor data corresponding to different surfaces and capture all transitions that last only milliseconds, we present a lightweight method to detect the micro-event of brushing strokes that cleanly demarcates transitions among brushing surfaces. Using features extracted from brushing strokes, we propose a Bayesian Ensemble method that leverages the natural hierarchy among teeth surfaces and patterns of transition among them. For training and testing, we enrich a publicly-available wrist-worn inertial sensor dataset collected from the natural environment with time-synchronized precise labels of brushing surface timings and moments of transition. We annotate 10,230 instances of brushing on different surfaces from 114 episodes and evaluate the impact of wide between-person and within-person between-episode variability on machine learning model's performance for brushing surface detection.

scholarly journals Reference in-vitro dataset for inertial-sensor-to-bone alignment applied to the tibiofemoral joint

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ive Weygers ◽  
Manon Kok ◽  
Thomas Seel ◽  
Darshan Shah ◽  
Orçun Taylan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Transformation Matrices ◽  
True Model ◽  
Advance Research ◽  
Manual Palpation ◽  
Visualization Tools ◽  
Inertial Measurements

AbstractSkin-attached inertial sensors are increasingly used for kinematic analysis. However, their ability to measure outside-lab can only be exploited after correctly aligning the sensor axes with the underlying anatomical axes. Emerging model-based inertial-sensor-to-bone alignment methods relate inertial measurements with a model of the joint to overcome calibration movements and sensor placement assumptions. It is unclear how good such alignment methods can identify the anatomical axes. Any misalignment results in kinematic cross-talk errors, which makes model validation and the interpretation of the resulting kinematics measurements challenging. This study provides an anatomically correct ground-truth reference dataset from dynamic motions on a cadaver. In contrast with existing references, this enables a true model evaluation that overcomes influences from soft-tissue artifacts, orientation and manual palpation errors. This dataset comprises extensive dynamic movements that are recorded with multimodal measurements including trajectories of optical and virtual (via computed tomography) anatomical markers, reference kinematics, inertial measurements, transformation matrices and visualization tools. The dataset can be used either as a ground-truth reference or to advance research in inertial-sensor-to-bone-alignment.

scholarly journals Smartphone-Based Inertial Odometry for Blind Walkers

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 4033
Author(s):  
Peng Ren ◽  
Fatemeh Elyasi ◽  
Roberto Manduchi
Keyword(s):  
Particle Filtering ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Mean Shift ◽  
Gait Pattern ◽  
Comparative Assessment ◽  
Pedestrian Tracking ◽  
Step Counter ◽  
Assisted Navigation

Pedestrian tracking systems implemented in regular smartphones may provide a convenient mechanism for wayfinding and backtracking for people who are blind. However, virtually all existing studies only considered sighted participants, whose gait pattern may be different from that of blind walkers using a long cane or a dog guide. In this contribution, we present a comparative assessment of several algorithms using inertial sensors for pedestrian tracking, as applied to data from WeAllWalk, the only published inertial sensor dataset collected indoors from blind walkers. We consider two situations of interest. In the first situation, a map of the building is not available, in which case we assume that users walk in a network of corridors intersecting at 45° or 90°. We propose a new two-stage turn detector that, combined with an LSTM-based step counter, can robustly reconstruct the path traversed. We compare this with RoNIN, a state-of-the-art algorithm based on deep learning. In the second situation, a map is available, which provides a strong prior on the possible trajectories. For these situations, we experiment with particle filtering, with an additional clustering stage based on mean shift. Our results highlight the importance of training and testing inertial odometry systems for assisted navigation with data from blind walkers.

scholarly journals Inertial Sensor Reliability and Validity for Static and Dynamic Balance in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5167
Author(s):  
Nicky Baker ◽  
Claire Gough ◽  
Susan J. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Postural Sway ◽  
Inertial Sensor ◽  
Dynamic Balance ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Gait Velocity ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Targeted Interventions

Compared to laboratory equipment inertial sensors are inexpensive and portable, permitting the measurement of postural sway and balance to be conducted in any setting. This systematic review investigated the inter-sensor and test-retest reliability, and concurrent and discriminant validity to measure static and dynamic balance in healthy adults. Medline, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, and Web of Science were searched to January 2021. Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis was possible for reliability studies only and it was found that inertial sensors are reliable to measure static standing eyes open. A synthesis of the included studies shows moderate to good reliability for dynamic balance. Concurrent validity is moderate for both static and dynamic balance. Sensors discriminate old from young adults by amplitude of mediolateral sway, gait velocity, step length, and turn speed. Fallers are discriminated from non-fallers by sensor measures during walking, stepping, and sit to stand. The accuracy of discrimination is unable to be determined conclusively. Using inertial sensors to measure postural sway in healthy adults provides real-time data collected in the natural environment and enables discrimination between fallers and non-fallers. The ability of inertial sensors to identify differences in postural sway components related to altered performance in clinical tests can inform targeted interventions for the prevention of falls and near falls.

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