Development of a wearable mobility monitoring system
G. Hache · uO Research (University of Ottawa) · 2010
Monitoring mobility at home and in the community, and understanding the environment and context in which mobility occurred, is essential for rehabilitation medicine. This thesis introduces a Wearable Mobility Monitoring System (WMMS) for objective measurement of community mobility. This prototype WMMS was created using a smartphone-based approach that allowed for an all-in-one WMMS. The wearable system is worn freely on a person's belt, like a normal phone. The WMMS was designed to monitor a user's mobility state and to take a photograph when a change-of-state was detected. These photographs are used to identify the context of mobility events (i.e., using an elevator, walking up/down stairs, type of walking surface). Mobility evaluation using the proposed WMMS was performed on five able-bodied subjects. System performance for detecting changes-of-state and the ability to identify context from the photographs was analyzed. The WMMS demonstrated good potential for community mobility monitoring.