Johannes Hoffmann, Henrik Wolframm, Erik Engelhardt, Moritz Boueke, Tobias Schmidt, Julius Welzel, Michael Höft, Walter Maetzler, Gerhard Schmidt
{"title":"A Magnetoelectric Distance Estimation System for Relative Human Motion Tracking.","authors":"Johannes Hoffmann, Henrik Wolframm, Erik Engelhardt, Moritz Boueke, Tobias Schmidt, Julius Welzel, Michael Höft, Walter Maetzler, Gerhard Schmidt","doi":"10.3390/s25020495","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Clinical motion analysis plays an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of mobility-limiting diseases. Within this assessment, relative (point-to-point) tracking of extremities could benefit from increased accuracy. Given the limitations of current wearable sensor technology, supplementary spatial data such as distance estimates could provide added value. Therefore, we propose a distributed magnetic tracking system based on early-stage demonstrators of novel magnetoelectric (ME) sensors. The system consists of two body-worn magnetic actuators and four ME sensor arrays (body-worn and fixed). It is enabled by a comprehensive signal processing framework with sensor-specific signal enhancement and a gradient descent-based system calibration. As a pilot study, we evaluated the technical feasibility of the described system for motion tracking in general (Scenario A) and for operation during treadmill walking (Scenario B). At distances of up to 60 cm, we achieved a mean absolute distance error of 0.4 cm during gait experiments. Our results show that the modular system is capable of centimeter-level motion tracking of the lower extremities during treadmill walking and should therefore be investigated for clinical gait parameter assessment.</p>","PeriodicalId":21698,"journal":{"name":"Sensors","volume":"25 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11768914/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Sensors","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/s25020495","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, ANALYTICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Clinical motion analysis plays an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of mobility-limiting diseases. Within this assessment, relative (point-to-point) tracking of extremities could benefit from increased accuracy. Given the limitations of current wearable sensor technology, supplementary spatial data such as distance estimates could provide added value. Therefore, we propose a distributed magnetic tracking system based on early-stage demonstrators of novel magnetoelectric (ME) sensors. The system consists of two body-worn magnetic actuators and four ME sensor arrays (body-worn and fixed). It is enabled by a comprehensive signal processing framework with sensor-specific signal enhancement and a gradient descent-based system calibration. As a pilot study, we evaluated the technical feasibility of the described system for motion tracking in general (Scenario A) and for operation during treadmill walking (Scenario B). At distances of up to 60 cm, we achieved a mean absolute distance error of 0.4 cm during gait experiments. Our results show that the modular system is capable of centimeter-level motion tracking of the lower extremities during treadmill walking and should therefore be investigated for clinical gait parameter assessment.
期刊介绍:
Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220) provides an advanced forum for the science and technology of sensors and biosensors. It publishes reviews (including comprehensive reviews on the complete sensors products), regular research papers and short notes. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible. There is no restriction on the length of the papers. The full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced.