Feasibility of the Depth Camera-based Physical Health Monitoring System for Elderly Living Alone
Sungbae Jo · Physical therapy rehabilitation science · 2024
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the validity of a depth camera-based system for monitoring physical function, assessing its feasibility for accurately monitoring activities of daily living.Design: A cross-sectional study.Methods: Twenty-three participants were enlisted to perform fifteen activities of daily living within a living laboratory designed to simulate a home environment.Activities were monitored using a depth camera system capable of classifying actions into standing, sitting, and lying down, with a conventional video camera employed for activity recording.The duration of each activity, as measured by the system, was compared to direct observations made by a physical therapist which were analyzed using a motion analysis software.The association between these two measurement approaches was assessed through correlation analysis, coefficient of determination, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and Bland-Altman plots.Results: Our findings indicated that standing activities exhibited the highest correlation (r＝0.847) between the system measurements and physical therapist observations, followed by sitting (r＝0.817) and lying down (r＝0.734), which demonstrated lower correlations.However, the ICC and Bland-Altman plots revealed notable variances between the two measurement methods, particularly for activities involving lying down.Conclusions: In this study, the depth camera-based physical monitoring system showed promise feasibility in distinguishing standing, sitting, and lying down activities at home environments.However, the current study also underlined some necessities of enhancements in capturing lying down activities.