An open vibration and pressure platform for fall prevention with a reinforcement learning agent

Lafontaine, Virgile; Lapointe, Patrick; Bouchard, Kévin; Gagnon, Jean-Michel; Dallaire, Mathieu; Gaboury, Sébastien; Silva, Rubens Alexandre da; Beaulieu, Louis‐David

doi:10.1007/s00779-020-01416-0

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Our results are mainly limited by the use of an inexpensive vibration platform, the PortVIBplate designed to be clinicalfriendly (Lafontaine et al, 2020). VIB frequency in the present study was set at 50 Hz according to the technical charts provided by the manufacturer's motors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Duration of the postural measures in all conditions is established according to the duration of vibratory stimulation which, in a similar context (i.e., disruption of muscle spindles by tenon vibration), presents a good reliability for the CoP-based postural parameters (Kadri et al, 2020). Vibration was delivered at 50 Hz by the 40 vibrators (20/foot) of the portable vibration platform (PortVIBplate-see Lafontaine et al (2020)). For all conditions, participants were asked to stand barefoot with eyes blindfolded and the arms along the body, and the feet position was standardized using marks on the PortVIBplate and Foam mat.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In research, stimulation of the plantar surface of the foot by the use of focal vibration motors could offer an alternative solution to investigate the specific role of feet mechanoreceptors and sensory re-weighting mechanisms for postural control (Kavounoudias et al, 1998;Maurer et al, 2001;Thompson et al, 2011;Viseux et al, 2019). Our team recently developed the PortVIBplate, a simplified, portable and inexpensive tool to test the contribution of cutaneous mechanoreceptors to postural control (Lafontaine et al, 2020). The device exploits 40 vibration motors analogically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The device exploits 40 vibration motors analogically. The software to control the platform, the 3D schematics and important information are made openly available to be reproduced by technological savvy persons (Lafontaine et al, 2020). Vibration (VIB) of feet soles with such a system has the advantage of reducing the quality of sensory inputs from mechanoreceptors without impacting the effectiveness of postural adjustments because the person is standing on a firm surface.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vibration of the Whole Foot Soles Surface Using an Inexpensive Portable Device to Investigate Age-Related Alterations of Postural Control

Lauzier

Kadri

Bouchard

et al. 2021

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Background: Standing on a foam surface is used to investigate how aging affect the ability to keep balance when somatosensory inputs from feet soles become unreliable. However, since standing on foam also affects the efficacy of postural adjustments, the respective contributions of sensory and motor components are impossible to separate. This study tested the hypothesis that these components can be untangled by comparing changes of center of pressure (CoP) parameters induced by standing on a foam pad vs. a novel vibration (VIB) platform developed by our team and targeting feet soles’ mechanoreceptors.Methods: Bipedal postural control of young (n = 20) and healthy elders (n = 20) was assessed while standing barefoot on a force platform through 3 randomized conditions: (1) Baseline (BL); (2) VIB; and (3) Foam. CoP Amplitude and Velocity in the antero-posterior/medio-lateral (AP/ML) directions and COP Surface were compared between conditions and groups.Findings: Both VIB and Foam increased CoP parameters compared to BL, but Foam had a significantly greater impact than VIB for both groups. Young and Old participants significantly differed for all three Conditions. However, when correcting for BL levels of postural performance, VIB-related increase of COP parameters was no longer different between groups, conversely to Foam.Interpretation: Although both VIB and Foam highlighted age-related differences of postural control, their combined use revealed that “motor” and “sensory” components are differently affected by aging, the latter being relatively unaltered, at least in healthy/active elders. The combined used of these methods could provide relevant knowledge to better understand and manage postural impairments in the aging population.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Vibration of the Whole Foot Soles Surface Using an Inexpensive Portable Device to Investigate Age-Related Alterations of Postural Control

Lauzier

Kadri

Bouchard

et al. 2021

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…One of the papers is by Lafontaine et al [1] entitled "An open vibration and pressure platform for fall prevention with a reinforcement learning agent". The authors of this paper propose an inexpensive open vibration platform equipped with pressure sensors.…”

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confidence: 99%

Special issue on trends & advances to mine intelligence from ambient data

Yasar

Malik²,

Shakshuki

et al. 2021

Pers Ubiquit Comput

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Identifying sensors-based parameters associated with fall risk in community-dwelling older adults: an investigation and interpretation of discriminatory parameters

Wang,

Cao,

Zhao

et al. 2024

BMC Geriatr

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Background Falls pose a severe threat to the health of older adults worldwide. Determining gait and kinematic parameters that are related to an increased risk of falls is essential for developing effective intervention and fall prevention strategies. This study aimed to investigate the discriminatory parameter, which lay an important basis for developing effective clinical screening tools for identifying high-fall-risk older adults. Methods Forty-one individuals aged 65 years and above living in the community participated in this study. The older adults were classified as high-fall-risk and low-fall-risk individuals based on their BBS scores. The participants wore an inertial measurement unit (IMU) while conducting the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. Simultaneously, a depth camera acquired images of the participants’ movements during the experiment. After segmenting the data according to subtasks, 142 parameters were extracted from the sensor-based data. A t-test or Mann-Whitney U test was performed on the parameters for distinguishing older adults at high risk of falling. The logistic regression was used to further quantify the role of different parameters in identifying high-fall-risk individuals. Furthermore, we conducted an ablation experiment to explore the complementary information offered by the two sensors. Results Fifteen participants were defined as high-fall-risk individuals, while twenty-six were defined as low-fall-risk individuals. 17 parameters were tested for significance with p-values less than 0.05. Some of these parameters, such as the usage of walking assistance, maximum angular velocity around the yaw axis during turn-to-sit, and step length, exhibit the greatest discriminatory abilities in identifying high-fall-risk individuals. Additionally, combining features from both devices for fall risk assessment resulted in a higher AUC of 0.882 compared to using each device separately. Conclusions Utilizing different types of sensors can offer more comprehensive information. Interpreting parameters to physiology provides deeper insights into the identification of high-fall-risk individuals. High-fall-risk individuals typically exhibited a cautious gait, such as larger step width and shorter step length during walking. Besides, we identified some abnormal gait patterns of high-fall-risk individuals compared to low-fall-risk individuals, such as less knee flexion and a tendency to tilt the pelvis forward during turning.

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An open vibration and pressure platform for fall prevention with a reinforcement learning agent

Cited by 4 publications

References 22 publications

Vibration of the Whole Foot Soles Surface Using an Inexpensive Portable Device to Investigate Age-Related Alterations of Postural Control

Vibration of the Whole Foot Soles Surface Using an Inexpensive Portable Device to Investigate Age-Related Alterations of Postural Control

Special issue on trends & advances to mine intelligence from ambient data

Identifying sensors-based parameters associated with fall risk in community-dwelling older adults: an investigation and interpretation of discriminatory parameters

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