title: Wearable Textile Platform for Assessing Stroke Patient Treatment in Daily Life Conditions.
abstract: Monitoring physical activities during post-stroke rehabilitation in daily life may help physicians to optimize and tailor the training program for patients. The European research project INTERACTION (FP7-ICT-2011-7-287351) evaluated motor capabilities in stroke patients during the recovery treatment period. We developed wearable sensing platform based on the sensor fusion among inertial, knitted piezoresistive sensors and textile EMG electrodes. The device was conceived in modular form and consists of a separate shirt, trousers, glove, and shoe. Thanks to the novel fusion approach it has been possible to develop a model for the shoulder taking into account the scapulo-thoracic joint of the scapular girdle, considerably improving the estimation of the hand position in reaching activities. In order to minimize the sensor set used to monitor gait, a single inertial sensor fused with a textile goniometer proved to reconstruct the orientation of all the body segments of the leg. Finally, the sensing glove, endowed with three textile goniometers and three force sensors showed good capabilities in the reconstruction of grasping activities and evaluating the interaction of the hand with the environment, according to the project specifications. This paper reports on the design and the technical evaluation of the performance of the sensing platform, tested on healthy subjects.
authors.affiliation: Research Center E. Piaggio, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Information Engineering Department, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lorussi
authors.affiliation: Information Engineering Department, University of Pisa , Pisa , Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carbonaro
authors.affiliation: Research Center E. Piaggio, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Information Engineering Department, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Danilo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: De Rossi
authors.affiliation: Smartex , Pisa , Italy.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paradiso
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Signals and Systems, MIRA - Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, University of Twente , Enschede , Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Veltink
authors.affiliation: Research Center E. Piaggio, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Information Engineering Department, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tognetti
keywords: ambulatory monitoring; data fusion; gait; grasping; reaching; stroke rehabilitation; wearable sensors