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Wireless Wearable Measurement System Based on Pedobarography for Monitoring of Health
Mälardalen University, School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Embedded Systems. (Embedded Sensor Systems for Health (ESS-H))ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2686-4539
2016 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Health care costs have increased over the last decades due to an ageing population. Therefore, research in personal health monitoring (PHM) has increased in response to this. PHM has advantages such as mobility (monitoring of health at work or at home), early detection of health problems enabling preventive health measures and a reduction of health care cost. Human motion analysis, using for example inertial measurement units and pedobarography, is an important subcategory of PHM. Pedobarography (PBG) is the study of pressure fields acting between the plantar surface of the foot and a supporting surface. Gait and posture analysis, prosthetics evaluation and monitoring of recovery from injury or disease are examples of PBG applications. Portable PBG can be performed using force sensing resistors built into the insole inside the shoe.

In accordance with this, the research goal for this licentiate thesis is to design, build and evaluate a wireless wearable measurement system based on pedobarography for monitoring of health. In order to fulfil the objectives of the research, literature studies were done and problems with existing in-shoe system solutions were identified. Thus, it was found that further opportunities existed for new designs of PBG systems which take these problems into account. Cross-sectional test case studies were used for validation. The research area is multidisciplinary and encompasses biomedical measurements, electronics and computer science.

The main research contributions include design and implementation of a PBG measurement system consisting of commercial off the shelf components, a novel method for selecting measurement samples for weight estimation of carried load during walk, and a novel method for analysing walking intensity using force-time integrals at the toe-off phase of the step. The research results suggest that the new PBG system, in combination with the two novel analysing methods, are suitable for use in wearable systems for monitoring of health. Personal health measurements are done to help decision making related to health. Thus, the future work will strive towards designing different decision support systems.

Abstract [sv]

Kostnaderna för vår hälsovård har ökat de senaste årtiondena på grund av att vi lever allt längre. Till följd av detta har forskning inom personlig hälsomonitorering (PHM) ökat. PHM medför fördelar såsom rörlighet (hälsoövervakning på jobbet och i hemmet), tidig upptäckt av hälsoproblem medför möjlighet till åtgärd i ett tidigt skede samt en minskning av kostnaderna för hälsovård. Analys av människors rörelser, med hjälp av till exempel tröghetsmätare och pedobarografi, är en viktig underkategori inom PHM. Pedobarografi (PBG) är studien av tryckfält som uppstår på grund av krafter som verkar mellan fotens undersida och en uppbärande yta. Analys av gångstil och kroppshållning, utvärdering av proteser samt monitorering av återhämtning från skada eller sjukdom är exempel på tillämpningar av PBG. Portabel PBG kan exempelvis utföras med hjälp av resistiva kraftsensorer implementerade i skors inläggssulor.

I överrensstämmelse med detta är målet för forskningen i den här licentiatavhandlingen att designa, bygga och utvärdera ett trådlöst bärbart mätsystem baserat på pedobarografi för övervakning av hälsa. För att uppfylla forskningsmålet utfördes litteraturstudier och problem med existerande skobaserade system identifierades. Tvärsnittsstudier användes vid valideringen. Forskningsområdet är tvärvetenskapligt och omfattar biomedicinska mätningar, elektronik och datavetenskap.

De främsta vetenskapliga bidragen inkluderar design och implementering av ett pedobarografiskt mätsystem bestående av öppet tillgängliga komponenter, en ny metod för att välja ut uppmätta värden för uppskattning av vikt av buren last under gång, samt en ny analysmetod för gångintensitet med hjälp av kraft-tidsintegraler i stegets avstampsfas. Forskningsresultaten implicerar att det nya pedobarografisystemet, i kombination med de två nya analysmetoderna, är lämpliga att användas i bärbara system för övervakning av hälsa. Mätningar vid personlig hälsomonitorering utförs för att hjälpa till vid beslutsfattande som rör hälsa. Följaktligen strävar framtida forskning mot design av olika beslutsstödsystem.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Västerås: Mälardalen University , 2016.
Series
Mälardalen University Press Licentiate Theses, ISSN 1651-9256 ; 241
National Category
Other Medical Engineering
Research subject
Electronics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-32101ISBN: 978-91-7485-276-9 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-32101DiVA, id: diva2:939807
Presentation
2016-09-30, Delta, Mälardalens högskola, Västerås, 09:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Funder
Knowledge FoundationAvailable from: 2016-06-20 Created: 2016-06-20 Last updated: 2016-09-28Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Intelligent Wireless Body Area Network System for Human Motion Analysis
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Intelligent Wireless Body Area Network System for Human Motion Analysis
Show others...
2015 (English)Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Human motion analysis provides several important applications. Examples are fall risk assessment, sports biomechanics, physical activity monitoring and rehabilitation. This work in progress paper proposes an intelligent wireless body area network system for motion and gait symmetry analysis. A Bluetooth network with accelerometers, gyroscopes and in-shoe force sensing resistors gathers data and sends it to a web server after intelligent pre-processing and filtering. The system is flexible and adaptable for different use cases including combinations of gait analysis, gait symmetry and pressure measurements between foot and shoe.

Keywords
motion analysis, wireless, body area network, Bluetooth Low Energy
National Category
Medical Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-29459 (URN)978-1-61208-446-6 (ISBN)
Conference
SPWID 2015, The First International Conference on SmartPortable, Wearable, Implantable and Disability-oriented Devices andSystems
Funder
Knowledge Foundation
Available from: 2015-11-11 Created: 2015-11-11 Last updated: 2019-10-14Bibliographically approved
2. Wearable Weight Estimation System
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Wearable Weight Estimation System
2015 (English)In: Procedia Computer Science, vol. 64, 2015, Vol. 64, p. 146-152Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Heavy working conditions, as well as sedentary behaviour, are risk factors for health. There is a lack of wearable measurement systems for monitoring carried loads while walking. Pedobarography, the study of force fields acting between the plantar surface of the foot and a supporting surface, is supposed to be useable for estimating carried loads. Purpose. The aim of this paper is to present a novel method for selecting appropriate measurement samples for weight estimation of carried load during walk and a wearable system, based on pedobarography, consisting of commercial off the shelf components. The main idea is to choose samples when half of the total weight is on the forward sensors and the other half is on the heel sensor “equipoise” in one foot while the other foot not touches the ground. Methods. The system consists of insoles with force sensing resistors, data acquisition with IOIO-OTG and analysis in Excel. Each subject was weighed on an electronic floor scale. Three walks were performed on level ground. The first walk without any added load and then with two increases of carried load. Equipoise was defined as having half the weight distributed on the heel and the other half over the metatarsal pad. An equipoise value of 0.5 represents equilibrium regarding the weight distribution on one foot, with the other foot in the air. Samples were chosen in the equipoise region of 0.5±0.1 and then the average of the samples collected during one minute estimated the total weight. Results. The system can detect increases in carried loads but has a tendency to overestimate them. The estimated value was always larger with increased weight but the system was not always linear. The average overestimation error was 16.7 kg. Discussion. This study shows that this type of wearable system is usable for estimating carried load during walk after calibration of the system to the body weight force distribution on the sensors. There is still need for future development to obtain real-time analysis and direct feedback. A smaller and lighter measurement system is also desirable. Conclusion. This study shows that the novel method, equipoise, is usable for selecting appropriate measurement samples for weight estimation of carried load during walk. This study also shows that the wearable system, consisting of commercial off the shelf components, can be used for these measurements. However, there is a tendency to overestimate the loads.

Series
Procedia Computer Science, ISSN 1877-0509 ; 64
Keywords
pedobarography, weight estimation, wearable, insole, in-shoe
National Category
Medical Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-29458 (URN)10.1016/j.procs.2015.08.475 (DOI)000373839900020 ()2-s2.0-84962909978 (Scopus ID)
Conference
Conference on ENTERprise Information Systems/International Conference on Project MANagement/Conference on Health and Social Care Information Systems and Technologies, CENTERIS/ProjMAN / HCist 2015 October 7-9, 2015
Funder
Knowledge Foundation
Available from: 2015-11-11 Created: 2015-11-11 Last updated: 2019-10-14Bibliographically approved
3. Walking Intensity Estimation with a Portable Pedobarography System
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Walking Intensity Estimation with a Portable Pedobarography System
2016 (English)In: Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, IOS Press , 2016, Vol. 224, p. 27-32Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the possibility to find a correlation between the output from a portable pedobarography system and the walking intensity expressed as walking speed. The system uses shoe insoles with force sensing resistors and wireless transmission of the data via Bluetooth. The force-time integral, at the toe-off phase of the step, for the force sensors in the forward part of the right foot was used to measure impulse data for 10 subjects performing walks in three different walking speeds. This data was then corrected by multiplication with the step frequency. This pilot study indicates that the portable pedobarography system output shows a linear relationship with the walking intensity expressed as walking speed on an individual level.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IOS Press, 2016
National Category
Medical Laboratory and Measurements Technologies
Research subject
Electronics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-31533 (URN)10.3233/978-1-61499-653-8-27 (DOI)000385238500005 ()27225549 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-84973454832 (Scopus ID)
Conference
13th International Conference on Wearable, Micro & Nano Technologies for Personalized Health (pHealth 2016)
Projects
ESS-H
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20120275
Available from: 2016-05-24 Created: 2016-05-06 Last updated: 2019-10-14Bibliographically approved

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Hellström, Per Anders Rickard

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