Abstract
Recognition of body posture and motion is an important physiological function that can keep the body in balance. Man-made motion sensors have also been widely applied for a broad array of biomedical applications including diagnosis of balance disorders and evaluation of energy expenditure. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art sensing components utilized for body motion measurement. The anatomy and working principles of a natural body motion sensor, the human vestibular system, are first described. Various man-made inertial sensors are then elaborated based on their distinctive sensing mechanisms. In particular, both the conventional solid-state motion sensors and the emerging non solid-state motion sensors are depicted. With their lower cost and increased intelligence, man-made motion sensors are expected to play an increasingly important role in biomedical systems for basic research as well as clinical diagnostics.
Highlights
Motion sensing is a critical sensing modality that plays an important role in medical practice
Head rotation and body orientation are the input signals for human balance prosthesis [1,2]; the movement of chest wall needs to be precisely monitored when a ventilation machine is used to support human breath [3,4]; the body motion characteristics need to be evaluated during the rehabilitation process of disabled people [5,6,7]
Microscale motion sensing technologies have gained dramatic advances, which have significantly propelled the development of human balance prosthesis [10,11,12,13], sports medicine [14,15,16], radiotherapy [17,18,19], and biomechanical research [20,21,22]
Summary
Motion sensing is a critical sensing modality that plays an important role in medical practice. The current clinical solution for motion sensing is to Sensors 2011, 11 use a camera based motion capture system [8,9], where the body motion is derived from the movement of multiple feature points attached on the body. Effective, this technique is obtrusive and expensive. In. particular, microsensors based on liquid-state proof mass gain particular attentions because their sensing principles are closer to those of the natural motion sensors. Particular, microsensors based on liquid-state proof mass gain particular attentions because their sensing principles are closer to those of the natural motion sensors These sensors fulfill the low frequency requirement that is critical for human body motion measurement. The development and expansion of this field in the near future are discussed
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