%0 Journal Article
%T Cell phone based balance trainer
%A Beom-Chan Lee
%A Jeonghee Kim
%A Shu Chen
%A Kathleen H Sienko
%J Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1743-0003-9-10
%X We have designed and developed a cell phone based vibrotactile feedback system for potential use in balance rehabilitation training in clinical and home environments. It comprises an iPhone with an embedded tri-axial linear accelerometer, custom software to estimate body tilt, a "tactor bud" accessory that plugs into the headphone jack to provide vibrotactile cues of body tilt, and a battery. Five young healthy subjects (24 ¡À 2.8 yrs, 3 females and 2 males) and four subjects with vestibular deficits (42.25 ¡À 13.5 yrs, 2 females and 2 males) participated in a proof-of-concept study to evaluate the effectiveness of the system. Healthy subjects used the system with eyes closed during Romberg, semi-tandem Romberg, and tandem Romberg stances. Subjects with vestibular deficits used the system with both eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions during semi-tandem Romberg stance. Vibrotactile feedback was provided when the subject exceeded either an anterior-posterior (A/P) or a medial-lateral (M/L) body tilt threshold. Subjects were instructed to move away from the vibration.The system was capable of providing real-time vibrotactile cues that informed corrective postural responses. When feedback was available, both healthy subjects and those with vestibular deficits significantly reduced their A/P or M/L RMS sway (depending on the direction of feedback), had significantly smaller elliptical area fits to their sway trajectory, spent a significantly greater mean percentage time within the no feedback zone, and showed a significantly greater A/P or M/L mean power frequency.The results suggest that the real-time feedback provided by this system can be used to reduce body sway. Its advantages over more complex laboratory-based and commercial balance training systems in terms of cost, size, weight, functionality, flexibility, and accessibility make it a good candidate for further home-based balance training evaluation.Postural imbalance can result from sensory abnormalities, infectio
%K vibrotactile
%K rehabilitation
%K sensory augmentation
%K balance
%K cell phone
%K smart phone
%K mobile phone
%U http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/9/1/10