title: A modular sensorized mat for monitoring infant posture.
abstract: We present a novel sensorized mat for monitoring infant's posture through the measure of pressure maps. The pressure-sensitive mat is based on an optoelectronic technology developed in the last few years at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna: a soft silicone skin cover, which constitutes the mat, participates in the transduction principle and provides the mat with compliance. The device has a modular structure (with a minimum of one and a maximum of six sub-modules, and a total surface area of about 1 m2) that enables dimensional adaptation of the pressure-sensitive area to different specific applications. The system consists of on-board electronics for data collection, pre-elaboration, and transmission to a remote computing unit for analysis and posture classification. In this work we present a complete description of the sensing apparatus along with its experimental characterization and validation with five healthy infants.
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, Pontedera (PI) 56025, Italy. m.donati@sssup.it.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Donati
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, Pontedera (PI) 56025, Italy. f.cecchi@sssup.it.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cecchi
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, Pontedera (PI) 56025, Italy. filippo.bonaccorso@sssup.it.
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bonaccorso
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, Pontedera (PI) 56025, Italy. marco.branciforte@st.com.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Branciforte
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, Pontedera (PI) 56025, Italy. p.dario@sssup.it.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dario
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, Pontedera (PI) 56025, Italy. n.vitiello@sssup.it.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vitiello
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*