Smart phone based personalized health screening and biofeedback system

• Main Author: Pham, Duy Duc
• Other Authors: Chan Syin
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Computer applications::Life and medical sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/59899
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

According to the World Health Organization, falls are the second leading cause of accidental or unintentional injury deaths worldwide, with an estimated 424 000 individuals die from falls globally annually. Prevalence and criticalness of falls prove a need for balance assessment and regular training as balance is closely related to fall risks. Currently, there are various standardized protocols for balance assessment: Tinetti, Berg, Rhomberg and BESS protocols, but they require the assistance of clinical therapists, who risks being subjective. Moreover, it is not easily accessible; patients are subjected to inconvenience and possibly the danger of falling when they have to travel to the clinical institute for balance assessments. By leveraging on the sensors embedded and the increasing computing power on the smartphones nowadays, we are able to digitize one of the most acclaimed balance assessments, the Berg Balance Scale (BBS). Eliminating the need of travelling to clinical institutions bring much convenience to users, allowing them to accurately assess their balance in the comfort of their own homes. For this purpose, we developed a completely new Android application, My Balance, which consists of two main parts: formal balance assessment - sBBS and Free Training assessment. To achieve the application’s goals, we had to understand how Android’s sensors work, how to process the sensors’ reading to get the balance parameters, and how to translate them to an easy to understand figure to the users. Build a friendly and interactive user interface was also an important aspect.