Validation of mobile motion tracking technology for the assessment of human standing balance

HeadCheck Health Inc.是一家新成立的加拿大科技公司，致力于跟踪人体运动，评估站立平衡，并向用户提供反馈。HeadCheck Health正在开发可穿戴设备，这种设备使用惯性传感器来测量线加速度，并通过蓝牙将数据传递到便携式设备(手机或平板电脑)，以提供算法生成的量化平衡的指标。然而，使用惯性传感器跟踪的头部运动只能提供站立平衡的大致评估，并且当前的算法仅提供一种平衡度量。因此，该公司目前需要将其原型的准确性与研究级技术进行比较，并开发产生不同平衡指标的新算法。可穿戴传感器原型需要在对全身施加不同水平的加速度的情况下进行测试，以确定其量化平衡指标的精度，这些指标可用于可靠地评估站立平衡。HeadCheck Health的利益相关者希望将他们的可穿戴传感器的使用扩大到健康科学和锻炼市场的所有领域，但尚未评估跟踪头部运动的准确性，也没有确定他们的措施是否包括有针对性的日常生活情况和临床评估的范围。UBC姿势与运动神经控制实验室的研究人员对跟踪人体运动有全面的了解，以解决在从站立、行走、临床平衡评估测试和应用于人类的外部扰动等环境中使用各种技术来控制平衡的问题。我们将与HeadCheck Health合作，研究可以从可穿戴传感器中提取哪些变量，以提供信息量大、相关的平衡指标，最终目的是提供适合用户需求的多样化反馈(S)。**

HeadCheck Health Incorporation is a new Canadian technology company interested in tracking human motion to assess standing balance and provide feedback to the user. HeadCheck Health is developing wearable devices that use inertial sensors to measure linear accelerations and relay the data to a portable device (phone or tablet) via Bluetooth to provide algorithm-generated metrics quantifying balance. Head motion tracked with inertial sensors, however, only provide an approximate assessment of standing balance and the current algorithm provides only one balance metric. Thus, the company currently needs to compare the accuracy of its prototype against research-grade technology and to develop new algorithms generating diverse balance metrics. The wearable sensor prototype needs to be tested with different levels of acceleration applied to the whole-body to determine its precision at quantifying balance metrics that can be used to reliably assess standing balance. The stakeholders at HeadCheck Health hope to expand the use of their wearable sensors to all areas of the health science and exercise markets, but have yet to assess the accuracy of tracking head motion and have not determined whether their measures encompass the scope of targeted daily-life situations and clinical assessments. The researchers in Neural Control of Posture & Movement Laboratory at UBC have a comprehensive understanding of tracking human motion to address the control of balance using various technologies in contexts ranging from standing, walking, clinical balance assessment tests, and external perturbations applied to humans. In collaboration with HeadCheck Health, we will investigate which variables can be extracted from the wearable sensor to provide informative, relevant balance metrics with the ultimate purpose of providing diverse feedback adapted to the user's need(s).**