The Effects of Haptic Feedback on Postural Sway

Purpose: Effectiveness of haptic feedback on reducing postural sway Hypothesis: Haptic input improves static standing stability. Individuals with increased variability in sway may have an increased risk for falls. Therefore, our haptic feedback device may have the ability to reduce risk of falling. Postural control is a dynamic system involving vision, vestibular system, proprioception, and musculoskeletal system. Postural control enables people to maintain their balance, reduce their sway, and keep an upright posture. Haptic feedback is tactile or vibratory cues that assist a subject in determining where they are in space

IMU and Markerless Technology in Gait Analysis: Clinical Lessons

- Haptic feedback refers to the external vibratory cue that is activated by data picked up by the haptic device, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) (Figure 1), which senses joint position. - Position-driven haptic touch input can modify movement in real-time (Meszaros, 2019) - Original goal: to reduce knee hyperextension during gait using a popliteal fossa tactor driven by an IMU-based angle sensor (Sagemotion) -Concerns arose on the validity of IMU/tactor and markerless motion analysis ❏ Are these algorithm-based data technologies clinic-ready? - Does Sagemotion IMU fire the tactor at the actual knee angle selected in its software? - Can markerless motion analysis accurately sense knee hyperextension in adult gait

Effect of Haptic Feedback on Static Standing Sway

Study Goal: To explore the use of proprioceptive input as a means of attenuating postural sway through the development and implementation of a hands-free device, with the ultimate goal of providing sway-reference haptic input located at the upper trunk and shoulders to determine: Does sway-referenced haptic input improve static standing stability