Monitoring Methods of Human Body Joints: State-of-the-Art and Research Challenges.

Sasan Naseh,Tapas Mondal,Sumit Majumder,Abu Ilius Faisal,M. Jamal Deen,David Cowan

doi:10.3390/s19112629

Abstract

The world’s population is aging: the expansion of the older adult population with multiple physical and health issues is now a huge socio-economic concern worldwide. Among these issues, the loss of mobility among older adults due to musculoskeletal disorders is especially serious as it has severe social, mental and physical consequences. Human body joint monitoring and early diagnosis of these disorders will be a strong and effective solution to this problem. A smart joint monitoring system can identify and record important musculoskeletal-related parameters. Such devices can be utilized for continuous monitoring of joint movements during the normal daily activities of older adults and the healing process of joints (hips, knees or ankles) during the post-surgery period. A viable monitoring system can be developed by combining miniaturized, durable, low-cost and compact sensors with the advanced communication technologies and data processing techniques. In this study, we have presented and compared different joint monitoring methods and sensing technologies recently reported. A discussion on sensors’ data processing, interpretation, and analysis techniques is also presented. Finally, current research focus, as well as future prospects and development challenges in joint monitoring systems are discussed.

Highlights

The human body is a well-developed mechanical structure
A comfortable, wearable and easy-to-use sensor-based joint monitoring device is a promising solution to the mobility and other musculoskeletal issues
We provided some background on existing systems and the current trend of sensing technologies for joint monitoring

Summary

Introduction

The human body is a well-developed mechanical structure. The skeleton of the human body is made up of 206 differently shaped bones, which serves as a framework of the body, and the joints are the locations where bones meet each other. Joints hold the bones together and give the skeleton stability and mobility [1]. Joints begin to deteriorate due to wear and tear as well as disease states. Three types of joints are present in the human body: fibrous (immovable), cartilaginous (semi-movable) and synovial (freely movable) joints [2]. Synovial joints (Figure 1a) are the key joints of our body because they provide mobility by allowing load-bearing, low-friction, wear-resistant smooth movement between articulating bone surfaces [3]. We have six groups of synovial joints in our body

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