Development and Evaluation of a Portable System for Balance Assessment in the Elderly
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Lin, Hui-Po
Abstract
Daily life movements such as standing, walking need balance ability to achieve. Good balance control is closely related to the body stability and its development. According to medical research, people showing dizziness after taking drugs may have their balance ability substantially affected, and are more likely to fall, especially true to the elderly. This study proposes the combination of Kinect (Markerless Motion Capture System, MMCS) with force plate to develop and evaluate a portable system for balance assessment in the elderly (ICC > 0.7). Based on the indicators of balance ability, this platform sets out various training activities (CTSIB) to investigate the balance ability between young people and the elderly. In this study, various applications of the Kinect in the fields of elderly care have been examined. The Kinect already shows notable potential in making therapy medically beneficial to a large population of elderly; however, some significant technological limitations still present are: a fixed location sensor with a range of capture of only roughly four meters; a difficulty in fine movement capture; shoulder joint biomechanical accuracy. The directions for future work are vast and have promise to enhance elderly care.
Subjects
Kinect
force plate
balance ability
camera calibration
Type
thesis