A Wirelss Wearable System to Measure Adherence to Mind-Body Study Protocols

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Advanced Medical Electronics Corporation proposes to develop a wireless wearable system to assess adherence to study protocols in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) mind-body interventions. The proposed system will utilize a suite of miniature wearable motion sensors to characterize limb and torso motion and compare it to stored reference profiles to evaluate adherence to body movement protocols such as yoga, meditation postures, and tai chi. Data will be collected in real time from wearable sensors using a low power standardized digital wireless personal area network technology. The recent commercial availability of low-cost high-precision miniature motion tracking sensors (accelerometers and gyroscopes) and standardized personal area networking technologies make the proposed project technically feasible at this time. Up to seven small wireless sensor packages may be worn on the body to collect motion and optionally other physiological parameters such as heart rate, respiration rate, and blood oxygen concentration. The acceleration and angular rate sensing information at each sensor location is transmitted to a handheld computer or smartphone (a handheld computer with integrated cell phone) where it is recorded. Personal area networking technologies, such as the Bluetooth network, are now standard in many commercially available handheld computers and smartphones. The use of a standard wireless networking solution will allow a researcher to invest in a set of sensors that will be compatible with new portable computing and cell phone devices for many years to come. Recorded motion data are automatically processed and characterized into a list of recognized poses and movement sequences that can be directly compared to a scripted protocol. A report is automatically generated from the analysis software package presenting an adherence index expressed as percentage of the number of deviations between the recorded and scripted movement sequences. The phase II project will further develop the sensors and software, and conduct a human study.