Invention:
This technology is a carpet with various sensors embedded within it to monitor and track a patient's movement. The carpet provides information regarding frailty, risk of falling, outcomes of rehabilitation, effects of plantar wound healing, and emergencies such as sudden falling due to heart attack.
Background:
The U.S. is expected to have more than 20% of the population over the age of 65 by 2029. With an aging population, there is a greater need for preventative, acute, rehabilitative, and long-term health care services for senior citizens. Although movement-monitoring devices exist in the market, they are unable to provide clinically meaningful information at the hefty price a patient pays to install these devices in their homes.
Applications:
- Commercial healthcare
- At-home healthcare
Advantages:
- Non-invasive monitoring technology
- Operates continuously without patients changing their normal routine
- Provides detailed information about gait and motor performance during locomotion, sitting, and standing
- Collects other information such as respiration rate, heart rate, and heart variability by assessing fluctuation in plantar pressure of person
- Flexible material adapts to stairs, a common location for home-related accidents to occur
- Cost effective materials reduce costs to cover large areas of a patient's home
Status: issued U.S. patents #10,478,126 and #10,856,810
