Wireless Synchronized Wearable Sensors for Movement Disorder Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current movement disorder monitoring devices face challenges with physical size, power consumption, wireless synchronization, wireless connectivity, automatic calibration, and noise floor, limiting their effectiveness in continuous ambulatory monitoring, especially in clinical and research settings.
Innovation Solution
A wearable movement monitoring system incorporating a kinematics sensor module with accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers, along with a bidirectional wireless communication module for synchronization and robust data transfer, using a master synchronization or mesh synchronization protocol, and a robust wireless data transfer controller to ensure continuous, accurate data collection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If high quality inertial sensors are used to measure all six degrees of freedom of motion, then measurement precision is improved, but device size and obtrusiveness increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the monitoring function into multiple distributed wireless sensor nodes, each measuring local movement parameters. Each node contains simplified sensors that measure only relevant parameters for its location, rather than one large device measuring all parameters centrally. This segmentation allows high measurement precision at each node while keeping individual device sizes small and unobtrusive.
2Ease of operation
If wireless communication is implemented for real-time data transmission, then ease of operation is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wireless communication operates in periodic bursts rather than continuous transmission. Sensors collect data locally and transmit in synchronized periods, allowing the communication module to remain idle between transmissions. This periodic action maintains real-time monitoring capability while dramatically reducing average power consumption compared to continuous wireless transmission.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple sensors are synchronized wirelessly, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A centralized synchronization server acts as an intermediary that manages the complex coordination tasks. The server distributes synchronized timing signals to all wireless sensor nodes and collects data from them. This intermediary approach enables multiple sensors to be synchronized wirelessly with high adaptability while keeping individual sensor node complexity low, as the coordination burden is handled by the external server.
4Measurement precision
If continuous high frequency sampling is performed, then measurement precision is improved, but use of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sampling frequency is dynamically adjusted based on the monitored parameters and clinical requirements. The system performs high frequency sampling when subtle movement symptoms need detection, and reduces sampling rate during stable periods. This dynamic adaptation maintains measurement precision for detecting movement disorder symptoms while reducing average power consumption compared to continuous high frequency sampling.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed embodiments include an apparatus that comprises (a) a kinematics sensor module including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, or combinations thereof; and (b) a bidirectional wireless communication module configured for wirelessly synchronizing the sampling time instances of the kinematics sensor module with the sampling time instances of at least a second wearable apparatus including a second kinematics sensor module.