Wearable device to measure human motion and posture

Eduardo Rocon

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain

Research

Werium Assistive Solutions aims to provide affordable technologies for people with disabilities, especially children with cerebral palsy and similar motor disorders. It is an all-in-one device that integrates a new way of computer interfacing using a wearable motion sensor, a software package including rehabilitation exercises based on serious games and assessment software based on the kinematic parameters measured by the wearable motion sensor.

It enables users to control the computer, enhances the traditional physical therapy and provides objective outcome measures of motor recovery.

Aim

To improve the autonomy and quality of life of people with disabilities, reducing the barriers that limit interaction with the world.

To motivate people with a motor lesion to practice rehabilitation tasks.

Problem to Solve

Neuromotor lesions limit interaction of people suffering them with the world. About 380.000 people in Spain and 5 million in Europe suffer some kind of neuromotor lesion. Main population with motor dissabilities include people with Cerebral Palsy (CP), stroke and Spinal Cord injury who have severe daily living limitations, and in second term people suffering neck and back pain (i.e. computer workers) requiring rehabilitation.

There is a strong need to develop new assistive devices for people with motor disabilities to reduce the barriers of this population, as well as to measure the recovery progress after rehabilitation treatment.

Innovation

Werium Assistive Solutions will offer a wearable and affordable sensor, called ENLAZA, to measure human motion and posture. The startup will also offer software packages to use the sensor information in three main applications: human-computer interaction, rehabilitation of motor disorders and assessment of the therapy progress.

A head-mounted human-computer interface has been specially designed for people with motor disabilities, who are unable to control computer with standard interfaces (e.g. mouse or joystick). Additionally, Werium Assistive Solutions offers a software package consisting of serious videogames to rehabilitate motor control and posture. Finally, the device can objectively measure the range of motion which allows therapists to follow the rehabilitation progress.

Level of Innovation

There are alternative solutions as eye-tracking, face and voice recognition which are very popular, but usually expensive. However, the usability of these solutions decreases when the user suffers a severe motor dissability. There is not any similar solution in the market combining human-computer interaction, rehabilitation and assessment of motor disorders in the same platform.

Werium Assistive Solutions device integrates filtering techniques to reduce the effect of the involuntary movements, as it uses a portable sensor that can be used by the doctor in any place and provides more movement freedom, and it is a low cost solution for people with motor disorders.