Miniature Wireless Inertial Sensor for Measuring Human Motions

A sensor system for measuring human motions is presented. The system consists of a number of miniature wireless inertial sensors that are attached to limbs of a person, and a PC with a wireless receiver that interprets and presents the measurement data. Each of the sensors measures 3D- acceleration, 3D-magnetization (earth magnetic field) and 3D- angular speed (gyroscopes). The data is transmitted via a proprietary protocol on an 802.15.4 radio. The angular accuracy of the calibrated system was found to be better than 3 degrees. The system is currently being applied in a pilot trial for motor rehabilitation of stroke patients.

[1]  R. Willmann,et al.  Home Stroke Rehabilitation for the Upper Limbs , 2007, 2007 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[2]  Robert B. McGhee,et al.  Sourceless tracking of human posture using small inertial/magnetic sensors , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation. Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation for the New Millennium (Cat. No.03EX694).

[3]  Michael J. Zyda,et al.  Rigid Body Dynamics, Inertial Reference Frames, and Graphics Coordinate Systems: A Resolution of Conflicting Conventions and Terminology , 2000 .