Session 7: Health Monitoring Systems

Wearable Sensing Gloves for Objective Medical Assessments
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
11:10 AM - 11:30 AM

Medical assessments can suffer from different limitations, which might result in poor treatment outcomes. The obtained results could be subjective, and suffer from both intra- and inter-rater variations. The assessment procedures sometimes demand complicated and uncomfortable instrumentation, require time and labor for the analysis, and lack sufficient resolution to tailor the most suitable treatment. To overcome these problems, and eventually enable better treatment outcomes, we have fabricated touch and pressure sensing gloves that are designated for different medical assessment tasks. First, we use it for characterizing finger tapping patterns of children with autism spectrum disorder to get immediately not just the tapping counts, but also information regarding tapping duration that has not been collected before. Our system avoids the need of videotaping analysis that is not always possible, and could further help in fine motor training and in evaluating the effectiveness of intervention therapies, which in general may help the children develop both motor and social skills. Second, we use the pressure sensing glove to assess spasticity-related muscle stiffness, providing higher resolution than the commonly used modified Ashworth scale. Using our glove system provides objective results, and minimizes inter- and intra-rater variations. Hence, better medication doses could be provided for the patients, improving their life quality and avoiding severe side effects of overdose. Our approach to incorporate wearable sensors offers an objective route for medical assessment. We expect it to permit the effective evaluation of intervention outcomes, as well as provide a platform for novel interventions in the future.