Closed-looped sensing and stimulation system for Parkinson’s disease early diagnosis and rehabilitation

Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients are involved in motor dysfunctions and gait issues. The absence of long-term reliable gait rehabilitations could result in poor gait function, gait deficits, and locomotion problems. Meanwhile, PD patients usually face significant challenges to complete the rehabilitation programs effectively without a specialized gait laboratory or after discharge from the hospital. This paper presents a closed-loop sensing and computing system to facilitate long-term medical care for PD patients. The proposed system consists of wearable sensing, data streaming, online data processing, real-time auditory stimulation for PD gait rehabilitation, and data services for medical providers. To address the potential issues of user-friendly and comforts, we implemented a wrapped shoe based plantar pressure sensing device for under-feet pressure data collection. Afterward, quantitative measurements of gait are fulfilled through online data streaming and processing architecture. Physical therapy is generally preferred for PD rehabilitation because it provides a more significant benefit superior to the drugs. Hence, applications of gait activity recognition and closed-loop stimulation are proposed to build a reliable closed-loop system and support self-contained training. To evaluate the proposed system, we conduct experiments with three gait and PD related datasets. It broads Parkinson’s gait health care prospects that make long-term PD rehabilitation possible in community-living environment.