STTR Phase I: A Body Area Sensor Network with Smart Glove Base Station for Improved Physical Therapy

这项小企业技术转移（STTR）一期项目的广泛影响将为上肢物理治疗康复提供一种低成本的可穿戴物联网（IoT）设备。该项目将有助于帮助患有中风或上肢关节相关损伤的患者的最终目标。该项目将产生一个医生可以利用的知识体系。例如，Fugl-Meyer评估（FMA）分数可以从获得的感觉运动信息中计算出来，以评估患者的身体表现。我们创新的带有智能手套基站（BASN-SG）设计的身体区域传感器网络可以通过生物反馈来促进神经可塑性，从而跟踪和加速患者的康复过程。因此，为医生和患者提供上肢康复的定量工具。将通过当地中学寻求推广机会，使用BASN-SG技术来激发学生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）主题的兴趣。该项目还具有巨大的商业影响，并有可能将中风患者神经康复相关的医疗保健和人工成本降低30%以上。拟议的项目旨在开发和商业化一种新颖的BASN-SG设计，该设计利用一种屡获殊荣且正在申请专利的物联网智能手套设备来测量人手的感觉运动信息，这是通过智能手机等替代手段无法实现的。此外，智能手套将被用于安全集中处理敏感的生物动力学和生理信息，这些信息将从BASN无线传输。将传感器数据融合和处理在更靠近身体的地方进行，将解决与信号传播和多路径、信号干扰和噪声导致的数据包丢失、网络攻击导致的网络威胁（以促进医患保密）以及无线传感器节点的能耗相关的问题。我们的研究目标包括：(1)开发一种内置模块化无线传感器节点的可穿戴运动衬衫，用于获取用户的生物状态，并将其传输到智能手套基站；(2)智能手套上的算法，使传感器数据融合和处理更接近人体；(3)虚拟现实软件工具，使用智能手套基站的聚合和融合数据集作为用户生物反馈的输入控制器。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will provide a low-cost wearable Internet-of-Things (IoT) device for upper extremity physical therapy rehabilitation. The project will contribute to the ultimate goal of helping patients suffering from stroke or joint-related injuries of the upper extremities. The project will result in a body of knowledge that physicians can leverage. For example, Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA) scores can be computed from the acquired sensorimotor information to assess the physical performance of a patient. Our innovative body area sensor network with smart glove base station (BASN-SG) design can be used to track and speed up the patient recovery process by promoting neuroplasticity through biofeedback. Thus, providing both the physician and patient a quantitative tool for upper extremity rehabilitation. Outreach opportunities will be pursued through local middle schools to use this BASN-SG technology to generate student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) topics. The project also has a huge commercial impact and has a potential to lower the health care and labor cost associated with neurological rehabilitation of stroke patients by over 30%.The proposed project aims to develop and commercialize a novel BASN-SG design that leverages an award winning and patent pending IoT smart glove device to measure the sensorimotor information of the human hand, which is not possible through alternative means, e.g., smart phone. Furthermore, the smart glove will be exploited for secure centralized processing of the sensitive biokinetic and physiological information that will be wirelessly transmitted from the BASN. Conducting sensor data fusion and processing closer to the body will address issues associated with signal propagation and multipath, packet loss due to signal interference and noise, cyber threats due to network attacks to foster physician-patient confidentiality, and energy consumption of wireless sensor nodes. Our research objectives includes: (1) developing a wearable exercise shirt with built-in modular wireless sensor nodes for acquiring the bio-states of the user to be transmitted to the smart glove base station, (2) algorithms on the smart glove to enable conducting sensor data fusion and processing closer to the human body, and (3) a virtual reality software tool that uses the aggregated and fused data set from the smart glove base station as an input controller for user biofeedback.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.