Android based Monitoring Human Knee Joint Movement Using Wearable Computing

Transcription

1 Android based Monitoring Human Knee Joint Movement Using Wearable Computing Abstract In today s fast moving lifestyle, incidents regarding health issues are surfacing every day. One of the major issues relating to medical concern is, weakness in joints caused due to much stress. Hence there is a demand in the market for devices to measure rapid movement of human joints when under recovery. The other reason for this increased need for monitoring human joint movements is to establish a speedy recovery of bones near joint areas with proper correction. Medical applications are various and the most common is physical therapy and rehabilitation. Some other examples of medical applications are 1] dynamic measuring of lumbar curvature, 2] dynamic monitoring of finger joints, 3] monitoring of limbs and many others. In addition to medicine, monitoring of human joint movements also provides benefits to athletes in sports. In this paper we present a system implementing two accelerometer sensors which is placed around the joints in order to detect the amount of bending thereby providing the correct information to an individual s family physician. Objective If an individual, say an athlete is, injured in the knee utmost care has to be taken in-order to recover as soon as possible. For this purpose the amount of bending around the knee due to an athlete s day-to-day activity, needs to be monitored at every instant of time. If the athlete bends his injured knee too much accidently,

2 then chances of damage to the injured knee would increase and the speed of recovery would take more time. To facilitate proper correction for speed recovery from damage caused at joints, in this case knee, we propose a system which uses accelerometer sensors placed on both the side (one above the joint and the other below the joint) of the joint. Whenever the bends around the joints is more, the athlete is alerted and hence can make the necessary correction. In this case the speed of recovery around the joints will be much faster. Also a pie chart will be maintained on an Android based Smartphone. This chart can provide an insight to physician or doctor regarding the amount of bending around the joints. Introduction In this paper, a measurement system for human joint movements overseeing based on a simple and low cost gravity change sensor is presented. The implemented curvature sensor is made up of MEMS technology thereby of great use for small curvature measurements, and has a high sensitivity in a wide measuring range. The actualized sensor is wearable, non-invasive, nonintrusive, and totally safe. The primary favourable circumstances of this sensor are straightforwardness, softness, and adaptability. This sensor is insusceptible to electromagnetic obstruction. The application, which provides a possibility of monitoring human joints movement using wearable computing, is implemented along with an Android software package. Computer communication systems and especially the Internet are playing an important role in the daily life. Using this knowledge many applications are

3 imaginable. Home automation, utility meters, appliances, security systems, card readers, and building controls, which can be easily, controlled using either special front-end software or a standard internet browser client from anywhere around the world. Web access functionality is embedded in a device to enable low cost widely accessible and enhanced user interface functions for the device. A web server in the device provides access to the user interface functions for the device through a device web page. A web server can be embedded into any appliance and connected to the Internet so the appliance can be monitored and controlled from remote places through the browser in a desktop. Temperature, Pressure, displacement, motion and sound are the most often measured environmental quantities. Literature Survey At present, there are increasing market needs for the measurement of fast variations of the human joint movements. The reason for this increased need for monitoring human joint movements is because there are many medical applications which could benefit from it. Medical applications are various and the most common are physical therapy and rehabilitation. The sensor presented in this paper is more simple and cheaper. Also, the resulting human joint movement monitoring system enables sending measured data over the internet, which provides a possibility of continuous and remote monitoring. This important feature makes the proposed sensor system a better solution in comparison to other sensing systems for human joint movements monitoring. The major advantage of this wearable MEMS based sensor in this system is better sensitivity.

4 System Overview In this project the acceleration readings are provided by accelerometers on different axis x, y and z. These readings are obtained with by monitoring changes in the positions of two accelerometers, placed on either side of the joint of an individual. Any movement that occurs at particular joints where accelerometers is placed will cause the accelerometer to generate an output voltage corresponding to the change in gravity. These voltages are fed as input to the microcontroller. The microcontroller further processes this information and delivers an output which is transmitted via Bluetooth to an Android based application mobile. The Android application converts incoming messages into voice output.

5 Block Diagram LCD 2 ACCELOREMETER RENESAS RL78 BLUETOOTH BT Signal ANDROID Application (Voice Alert) BUZZER EMERGENCY SWITCH RESET Description Many embedded systems have substantially different designs according to their functions and utilities. In this project design, structured modular design concept is adopted and the system is mainly composed of a single microcontroller, accelerometer, buzzer, Bluetooth and Android cell phone. The microcontroller located at the centre of the block diagram forms the control unit of the entire project. Embedded within the microcontroller is a program that helps the microcontroller to take action based on the inputs provided by the output of the sensors. A pair of accelerometer is attached, one above the particular joint and the other below the joint of an individual s body whose movement needs to be monitored because health issues. Any movement at the particular joint would cause anyone of

6 the accelerometer or both the accelerometer to generate an output voltage. These output voltage (or voltages) corresponds to the change in gravity. These output voltages are fed as input to the microcontroller input pins. The microcontroller processes the incoming voltages from the sensor depending on the program embedded within it. The output of the microcontroller is passed to Android cell phone via Bluetooth. Through the Android cell phone the incoming signal can be converted into voice message. With this information the particular individual can control his/her limb movement. An emergency switch is included in this project demonstration. If there arises a scenario, wherein the individual may require assistance of another human being who is not present in that particular room, pressing emergency switch would cause the buzzer to buzz, thereby drawing the attention to another human being. In the above block diagram LCD is utilized to demonstrate the working of the entire unit. Components List Renesas microcontroller ( RL78 series ) Accelerometer Buzzer Emergency switch Reset switch Bluetooth module Android cell phone

7 LCD Software s Used CubeSutie+ Renesas Flash Programmer Eclipse Android 4.0 or higher version Java Applications Can also be used by individuals with partial disabilities due to stroke or paralysis. Can be used on aged individuals whose bones and joints require careful attention. Can be used by individuals suffering from spinal-cord problems that require careful correction of postures Advantages Sensors are simple, lightweight and miniature size. Sensors are also electrically safe and immune to any radiations. Sensor is wearable, non-invasive, nonintrusive, and completely harmless. Disadvantages System failure may occur due to tampering System failure may also take place in the absence of power to the entire unit.

8 Future Scope With changes taking place in the MEMS technology, accelerometers can nowadays be designed to be made wearable on clothes in order facilitate any correction in the movements associated with any joints of an individual involving correction in their body movements. References M. Donno, E. Palange, F. D. Nicola, G. Bucci, and F. Ciancetta, A new flexible optical fiber goniometer for dynamic angular measurements: Application to human joint movement monitoring, IEEE Trans. Instrum.Meas., vol. 57, no. 8, pp , Aug Wikipedia, "Accelerometer" J. Fraden, Handbook of Modern Sensors: Physics, Designs, and Applications, 3rd ed. New York: Springer-Verlag, 2014