Mobile Assessment System for Shoulder Joint Rehabilitation: System Development and Preliminary Study

Abstract

This paper proposes the mobile assessment system for shoulder joint rehabilitation. To monitor the patient's condition during the rehabilitation process, it is necessary to assess the initial condition and monitor the progress before and after the treatment. For the assessment, the shoulder joint angle in certain positions needs to be measured. The proposed system measures and assesses the patient's joint angles in four different positions using smart sensors embedded in the smartphones such as the accelerometer and the gyroscope. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated by comparing the assessment results with measurements using the goniometer.

Studying Upper-Limb Kinematics Using Inertial Sensors Embedded in Mobile Phones

“…The use of a clinometer embedded in a mobile phone has been validated in shoulder abduction and flexion movements in healthy and symptomatic shoulders [ 24 ]. Recently, mobile phone goniometric measurements have been validated in five healthy subjects, obtaining 95.2° for flexion and 155.4° for abduction [ 25 ], which is similar to the abduction degrees obtained in our study. Furthermore, an inclinometery-based and photo-based mobile phone app has been validated for measuring shoulder external rotation [ 29 ].…”

“…This drives the use of the mobile phone as a tool for assessing and measuring. Mobile phone apps are being validated as goniometric tools [ 23 ] through clinometers [ 24 ] or goniometers [ 25 ]. Image-based apps have been created for measuring elbow and hallux valgus angles [ 26 , 27 ], and clinometer-based apps have also been created for measuring shoulder ROM [ 24 ].…”

A new optical technique to monitor joint motion using position sensitive detector

“…Recently, population ageing, safety accidents, and excessive exercises have increased the number of patients with functional disorders [1]. For these reasons, rehabilitation is concerned with the development and restoration of human movement and functionalities after injury.…”