A pelvic motion driven electrical stimulator for drop-foot treatment.
Foot switches operating with force sensitive resistors placed in the shoe sole were considered as an effective way for driving FES assisted walking systems in gait restoration. However, the reliability and durability of the foot switches run down after a certain number of steps. As an alternative for foot switches, a simple, portable, and easy to handle motion driven electrical stimulator (ES) is provided for drop foot treatment. The device is equipped with a single tri-axis accelerometer worn on the pelvis, a commercial dual channel electrical stimulator, and a controller unit. By monitoring the pelvic rotation and acceleration during a walking cycle, the events including heel strike and toe off of each step is thereby predicted by a post-processing neural network model.
Chen
Shih-Wei
SW
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. r92921115@ ntu.edu.tw
Chen
Shih-Ching
SC
Chen
Chiun-Fan
CF
Lai
Jin-Shin
JS
Kuo
Te-Son
TS
D000054:Acceleration; D000328:Adult; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005246:Feedback; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010388:Pelvis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016896:Treatment Outcome