Skin mounted accelerometer system for measuring knee range of motion

Abstract

Sufficient range of motion of the knee joint is necessary for performing many activities of daily living. Ambulatory monitoring of knee function can provide valuable information about progression of diseases like knee osteoarthritis and recovery after surgical interventions like total knee arthroplasty. In this paper, we describe a skin-mounted, conformal, accelerometer-based system for measuring knee angle and range of motion that does not require a skilled operator to apply devices. We establish the accuracy of this technique with respect to clinical gold standard goniometric measurements on a dataset collected from normative subjects during the performance of repeated bouts of knee flexion and extension tests. Results show that knee angle and range of motion estimates are highly correlated with goniometer measurements, and track differences in knee angle and range of motion to within 1%. These results demonstrate the ability of this system to characterize knee angle and range of motion, enabling future longitudinal monitoring of knee motion in naturalistic environments.