Assistive Technologies Shirt Instrumentation

The goal of this project is to develop and implement data storage procedures, processing algorithms, and a visualization displays in order to present a useful summary of mobility between session to a therapist.

Problem Definition
Individuals recovering from post-stroke arm impairments spend significantly more time conducting therapeutic exercise at home without therapist supervision than they spend doing supervised therapy in a clinical setting. It is difficult to quantify the amount and quality of arm usage that takes place between supervised therapy sessions, which would be useful to know both as an indicator of functional recovery, and also as a way to monitor activity level and its impact on motor recovery.

Background
This purpose of this project is to identify, develop, and test a solution for a wearable goniometric- based range of motion monitoring garment with a focus in rehabilitation applications. Currently there does not exist a low cost, wearable solution for the need of in home rehabilitation monitoring for impaired patients. An assembly of 4 Spectra brand flex-type sensors woven into an elastine fabric compression shirt measures ROM based on goniometric measurements of the upper limb by monitoring 3 Degrees of Freedom at the shoulder joint; including shoulder flexion/extension and abduction/adduction, and 1 Degrees of Freedom at the elbow joint (flexion/extension). This sensor  data  is  acquired, calibrated, and transmitted to a mobile device using an Adafruit Bluetooth low energy 32u4 Feather Bluetooth low energy microcontroller. The device is powered by  a  3.7  2000 mAh  lithium polymer battery selected for an effective wireless running time of 10 hours. The resulting device is an accurate, repeatable, and potentially low cost alternative to other devices currently used in rehabilitation applications.