Smart object for physical rehabilitation assessment

• Autor(a) principal: Frango, Pedro Martim Valente Lima
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/18736
• topic: Physical therapy; WSN Wireless Sensor Network; Internet of things; Mobile application; Monitoring; Engenharia de telecomunicações; Fisioterapia; Desenvolvimento de software -- Software development; Informática aplicada à saúde; Bluetooth -- Bluetooth; Monitorização

The technologies associated with smart healthcare are a reality nowadays, however in the physical therapy area there is still lack of patient monitoring during the physical rehabilitation and common usage of walking aids by the patients affected by lower limb impairments. Currently there are fewer systems that provide the patient monitoring during the rehabilitation process by physiotherapists, which may lead to less adequate diagnostic techniques for the patient's physical condition. The dissertation presents a solution to this problem by relying on smart equipment used in physical rehabilitation, more precisely a crutch. By embedding multiple smart sensors on crutches, the physiotherapist will be provided appropriate information regarding the interaction between the patient and the walking aids through a mobile application, developed for Android systems, which will receive data from the sensors via Bluetooth. All the data collected will be stored in a local database located on the physiotherapist’s mobile device and also on a remote server, giving the possibility of having a full offline application. This system allows for any session previously done to be consulted, which results in the possibility of visualizing historical values and comparing them with different sessions, allowing the physiotherapist to analyze the evolution of the patients.