SCH: INT: Inferring at home gait parameters of older adults using floor vibrations

美国人口正在老龄化。迫切需要工具来更好地将卫生专业人员与患者联系起来，并以自动化的方式进行家庭评估。该提案的长期目标是发现必要的知识，以实现一个始终在线的，非侵入式的，非可穿戴的智能系统，用于使用地板振动进行自动化的在家步态参数估计。为了实现这一愿景，该提案的目标是通过智能系统将卫生专业人员与独立生活的老年人联系起来，该系统使用地板振动来估计步态参数。实现这一目标的目的是：1）确定作为时间和空间的函数的在家步态参数; 2）基于步态参数建立老年人的数字标识符;以及3）在考虑空间-时间相关性之后，将在家步态参数的变化与居民的健康变化相关联。通过测试以下假设，拟议的研究将推进工程、物理治疗和公共卫生领域的最新技术水平：1）地板振动是自动和连续确定步态参数的可行方法; 2）对于生活在独立家庭环境中的健康个体，步态参数将基于家中的位置、一天中的时间和一周中的日期保持一致;以及3）对于最近出院的患者，恢复将与其步态参数的改善相关。假设的检验将通过五项任务进行：1）开发一个自动系统来捕获地板振动并提取步态参数; 2）在实验室环境中对系统进行调试; 3）在参与者家中收集数据; 4）检验家中步态参数与时间和空间一致的假设; 5）检验步态参数的改善与最近出院患者的健康状况的改善相关的假设。这项研究将由一组工程和物理治疗的跨学科研究人员在经验丰富的老年医生的支持下进行，并将推进信号处理技术，估计和验证在家步态参数及其不确定性，以及在家步态参数变化与健康状况变化之间的关系。拟议的活动将对老年人护理、研究界和下一代研究人员和工程师产生重大影响，其原因是：（1）通过早期干预改善老年人的健康，降低医疗保健成本，从而降低再入院率;（2）通过基准问题、跨学科研讨会、新课程和外联活动提高科学素养和公众参与; 3）培养能够解决跨学科问题的多元化融合研究人员，包括STEM领域代表性不足的群体。

The United States population is growing older. There is an urgent need for tools to better connect health professionals with their patients and perform at-home assessments in an automated fashion. The long-term goal of this proposal is to discover the knowledge necessary to enable an always-on, non-intrusive, non-wearable smart system for automated at-home gait parameter estimation using floor vibrations. To achieve this vision, the proposal has the objective of connecting health professionals with older adults living independently through a smart system that estimates gait parameters using floor vibration. The aims to achieve this goal are to 1) determine at-home gait parameters as a function of time and space; 2) establish a digital identifier of the older adult based on gait parameters; and 3) correlate changes in at-home gait parameters, after considering spatial-temporal correlations, with changes in the well-being of the resident. The proposed research will advance the state-of-the-art in engineering, physical therapy and public health by testing the following hypotheses: 1) Floor vibration is a viable means to automatically and continuously determine gait parameters; 2) For healthy individuals living in an independent at-home setting, gait parameters will be consistent based on location in the home, time of the day and day of the week; and 3) For patients recently discharged from the hospital, recovery will correlate with improvements in their gait parameters. The testing of the hypotheses will be performed through five tasks: 1) Develop an automated system to capture floor vibration and extract gait parameters; 2) Validate the system in laboratory setting; 3) Collect data at participant’s homes; 4) Test the hypothesis that at-home gait parameters are consistent with time and space; 5) Test the hypothesis that improvement in gait parameters correlates improvement in health status of recently discharged patients. This research will be pursued by a group of interdisciplinary researchers in engineering and physical therapy with the support of an experienced geriatric physician and will advance the knowledge in signal processing techniques, estimation and validation of at-home gait parameters and their uncertainty, and relationship between changes at-home gait parameters and changes in health status. The proposed activities will have a significant impact on older adult care, the research community and the next generation of researchers and engineers stemming from: 1) improved health of older adults and reduced health care cost by early intervening and thus decreasing the readmission rate; 2) increased scientific literacy and public engagement through benchmark problems, interdisciplinary seminars, new courses and outreach activities; 3) the training of diverse convergence researchers competent in solving interdisciplinary problems, including underrepresented groups in STEM fields.