Method and apparatus for angular position and velocity based determination of body sway for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of balance and gait disorders

A system for providing augmenting prosthetic body sway feedback to improve a subject's balance and movement control, comprising:

• (a) a body sway sensor adapted to be attached to the body of a subject and providing continuous body sway signals indicative of the sway of the body;
• (b) a system processor means for deriving continuous body sway information from the body sway signals and for generating body sway feedback from the body sway information;
• and
• (c) a subject body sway feedback means for providing the body sway feedback to the subject.

A central monitoring system for monitoring the body sway of one or more subjects, comprising:

• (a) a body sway sensor adapted to be attached to the body of each subject, each body sway sensor providing continuous body sway signals indicative of the sway of the subject's body;
• (b) a system processor means for deriving continuous body sway information for each subject from the body sway signals, for comparing the body sway information for each subject with a set of safety rules defining an angular cone of stability of the subject, and for generating a fall warning indication when a subject's body sway exceeds an angle greater than a selected fraction of the angular cone of stability;
• and
• (c) an operator display means for displaying the fall warning indication to an operator of the system.

A method for monitoring the body sway of a subject, comprising the steps of:

• (a) attaching a body sway sensor to the body of a subject, the body sway sensor providing continuous body sway signals indicative of the sway of the body;
• (b) deriving continuous body sway angle and body sway angular velocity information from the body sway signals and generating an operator display of the body sway angle and body sway angular velocity information;
• and
• (c) displaying the operator display to an operator of the system.

A method for providing augmenting prosthetic body sway feedback to improve a subject's balance and movement control, comprising the steps of:

• (a) attaching a body sway sensor to the body of a subject, the body sway sensor providing continuous body sway signals indicative of the sway of the body;
• (b) deriving continuous body sway angle and body sway angular velocity information from the body sway signals and generating body sway feedback from the body sway angle and angular velocity information;
• and
• (c) providing the body sway feedback to the subject.

A method for monitoring the body sway of one or more subjects, comprising the steps of:

• (a) attaching a body sway sensor to the body of each subject, each body sway sensor providing continuous body sway signals indicative of the sway of the subject's body;
• (b) deriving continuous body sway information for each subject from the body sway signals, comparing the body sway information for each subject with a set of safety rules defining an angular cone of stability of the subject, and generating a fall warning indication when a subject's body sway exceeds an angle greater than a selected fraction to the angular cone of stability;
• and
• (c) displaying the fall warning indication to an operator of the system.