Novel Sensor for Rehabilitation of Chronic Neck Pain Patients

Abstract

Chronic neck pain can difficult to treat using methods of manual therapy. It requires highly skilled clinician and a cumbersome rehabilitation process. A novel sensor has been designed for clinicians to use for diagnostic purposes and for the patient to use for rehabilitation. The sensor consists of 5 three degrees of freedom accelerometers and 5 three degrees of freedom gyroscopes, aligned in a manners to minimize drift. The sensor is placed on the patient's head using a special head gear. The patient uses the sensor to control a cursor on a monitor. A software has been developed that creates a target on the monitor and the patient using the sensor will attempt to track the target as best as possible. The three dimensional angles calculated from the acceleration and gyroscope data are projected onto the two dimensional monitor. This provides an instant feedback to the patient about the head posture in three dimensional space. Various parameters from the sensor are calculated based on the performance of the test. Those variables are: 1) amplitude accuracy – how far is the sensor from the moving target 2) time on target – how much percentage of time is spent in the proximity of the target, how much time is spent behind the target and how much time is spent ahead of the target 3) smoothness of the movement – how smooth is the movement or is the subject jerking the head back and forth whilst performing the test. These variables can provide a good indication about the subject’s proprioception and biomechanical ability to be able to track a moving target on a screen using the sensor on the head