abstract

1

sensor assisted vestibular rehabilitation

University of Pennsylvania Moore School of
Electrical Engineering Department of
Neurology Department of Bioengineering authors
Anand Allam Sam Fort
Amneet Sandhu advisors Dr. David Solomon
Siddharth Deliwala
motivation of project what is the frequency of
inner ear disorders? The problem of dizziness
and disequilibrium is significant, second only to
lower back complaints in frequency of occurrence
in adult populations. Dizziness itself is not a
disease but rather a symptom of a problem within
the nervous system. There are many causes of
dizziness however, most are from problems with
the vestibular system. what are inner ear
disorders? Inner ear or vestibular system
disorders often are due to the blockage of
signaling from the inner ear to the brain due to
sinus illnesses or head injuries. Initially,
this blockage materializes as feelings of
dizziness upon movement of the head, leading to
difficulties in daily function and nausea. The
body usually adapts after several days despite
the garbled signal from one ear. When the
illness dissipates and the signal blockage is
removed, the body again faces difficulty adapting
which again leads to nausea and vertigo during
head movements. In response, many patients stop
turning their heads and instead turn their full
body to look in different directions. what is
vestibular rehabilitation and exercise?
Vestibular rehabilitation is an exercise
approach to the remediation of disequilibrium and
dizziness symptoms associated with vestibular
problems. Vestibular rehabilitation is a form of
treatment involving specific exercises designed
to (1) decrease dizziness (2) increase balance
function (3) increase general activity levels.
Thus an exercise program was devised to promote
compensation for the inner ear deficits by
re-instructing patients to use their necks
properly. At present, two note cards placed at a
prescribed distance away on a wall are used to
direct an exercise of head movements. The
microcontroller driven SAVR system uses this same
sort of technique while recording exercise
feedback to improve the quality of
rehabilitation. Patients are asked to exercise
daily at home and to visit the physical therapist
or occupational therapist. The SAVR system
simplifies this process and allows therapists to
more closely monitor patients without their
physical presence.

• abstract
• demonstration times
• april 22, 2004
• 900am, 930am, 100pm

The Sensor-Assisted Vestibular Rehabilitation
System (SAVR) is a take-home rehabilitation
device that implements exercises for patients
with vestibular illnesses. SAVR improves on
current crude rehabilitation methods based on the
proven Cawthorne-Cooksey method of therapy while
providing the moderating physician with exercise
control and feedback. Also, SAVR provides
effective options to achieve optimal recovery
through a variety of exercises and the ability to
create exercise routines. Further, the SAVR
system is equipped with a modem for file transfer
of exercise results to the doctor. This feature
of remote communication coupled with portability
provides an effective method for doctors to
monitor to patients with vestibular illnesses in
an inexpensive package. The systems implementing
SAVR can be split into three subunits (1)
exercise real-time communication between board
and microcontroller (2) data transfer
communication between microcontroller and a Palm
(3) data transmission communication between the
Palm and the therapists PC. The patient wears a
laser apparatus on his head and points it towards
a board (wall mounted or free standing) cover
with 9 laser receptors (solar cells) and LEDs.
The board is attached to a microcontroller, which
directs head movements by illuminating various
LEDs and stores performance data. This data is
sent serially to the Palm, which in turn sends
the data via the Palm modem to the therapists
PC. By providing the patient with an easy to use
device and the therapist with remote exercise
control and feedback, it is anticipated that SAVR
will reduce doctor office visits and improve
recovery time.
Diagram 1 The SAVR system flowchart.
device functions The basic function of SAVR is
to improve the speed, quality, and efficiency of
rehabilitation for patients with vestibular
disorders. A variety of exercises are implemented
on the device through different programs selected
based on the patients needs and the physicians
directives. After exercise sessions, the device
intelligently gathers and organizes data. This
data along with patient feedback can then be
remotely sent to a physicians computer for
analysis. Also, SAVR gives neurology patients
with vestibular disorders an easy to use,
take-home rehabilitation device in a compact and
lightweight package to aid in their therapy.
device operation The basic operation of SAVR is
through three subunits. Exercise begins by using
the Palm to initialize the HC11 followed by
exercise selection. The exercise and
performance results are then handled by the HC11.
The results are then passed serially to the
Palm. The Palm then organizes the data into a
database to display to the patient and to send to
the physician. The file is sent from the Palm to
the physicians PC via modem using FTP.
Diagram 3 The therapy program page, showing the
4 available exercise types and parameters
required to initialize the programs.
Diagram 2 The SAVR main menu page on the Palm
Vx.
Diagram 4 SAVR system operation layout.