Leveraging Sensor Technology to Characterize the Postural Control Spectrum

The purpose of this paper is to describe ongoing research on appropriate instrumentation and analysis techniques to characterize postural stability, postural agility, and dynamic stability, which collectively comprise the postural control spectrum. This study had a specific focus on using emerging sensors to develop protocols suitable for use outside laboratory or clinical settings. First, we examined the optimal number and placement of wearable accelerometers for assessing postural stability. Next, we proposed metrics and protocols for assessing postural agility with the use of a custom force plate-controlled video game. Finally, we proposed a method to quantify dynamic stability during walking tasks using novel frequency-domain metrics extracted from acceleration data obtained with a single body-worn IMU. In each of the three studies, a surrogate for instability was introduced, and the sensors and metrics discussed in this paper show promise for differentiating these trials from stable condition trials. Next steps for this work include expanding the tested population size and refining the methods to even more reliably and unobtrusively characterize postural control status in a variety of scenarios.