Apparatus for assessing human balance capability
AssigneeWisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
InventorsKreg George Gruben, Wendy Lee Boehm, Kieran Marc Nichols
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus with one or more force plates senses of center-of-pressure and force-angle in the sagittal plane for a standing individual to provide an indication of balance capability based on the deduced functional relationship between center-of-pressure and force-angle within a limited band of frequencies. In one embodiment this relationship may be expressed as an intersection point of the force vectors with respect to the individual's center-of-mass.
Claims17
An instrument for assessing balance in an individual comprising:
- at least one platform size to receive an individual's foot applying a force against the platform with natural ankle freedom;
- a set of sensors communicating with the platform to provide a set of measurements determining a center-of-pressure of the force on the platform in a measurement plane of the foot and corresponding angle of the force on the platform within the measurement plane of the foot;
- an analysis circuit receiving a first set of multiple values of center-of-pressure as a function of time and a second set of corresponding multiple values of angle of force as a function of time from the sensors to determine at least one parameter of a predetermined function relating a change in angle of force to change in center-of-pressure over the multiple values;
- an output device providing an assessment of individual balance based on the parameter.
A method of assessing balance in an individual using an instrument providing:
- at least one platform size to receive an individual's foot applying a force against the platform with natural ankle freedom;
- a set of sensors communicating with the platform to provide a set of measurements determining a center-of-pressure of the force on the platform in a measurement plane of the foot and corresponding angle of the force on the platform within the measurement plane of the foot;
- an analysis circuit receiving a first set of multiple values of center-of-pressure as a function of time and a second set of corresponding multiple values of angle of force as a function of time from the sensors to determine at least one parameter of a predetermined function relating a change in angle of force to change in center-of-pressure over the multiple values;
- an output device providing an assessment of individual balance based on the parameter;
- and
- the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) placing an individual on the platform to obtain a set of measurements and to provide an output indicating an assessment of individual balance to the individual;
- and
- (b) instructing the individual to concentrate on changing the output in a particular direction;
- (c) reading an output of the at least one parameter to diagnose balance problems in the individual.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.