Signal Processing Algorithm and Health Care Application for Wearable Sense of Balance Monitoring Headphones

A wearable sense of balance monitoring headphones system utilizing a 3-axis low-noise accelerometer has been investigated to determine suitable parameters to describe physical conditions of the user. We performed a light physical stress test, in which the user goes up stairs for a short time, to cause gradual as well as monotonous changes in the sense of balance. From the results with an electromagnetic positioning system, a motion evaluation parameter calculated with 2-dimensional time-differential acceleration trace plots showed a well-defined monotonously decreasing curves as compared with velocity and coordinate trace plots. A population test using the headphones device with healthy subjects showed that the 2-axis acceleration signals should be measured for more than 10 seconds to describe the user´s conditions. Moreover, daily changes in the motion evaluation parameter for more than 60 days suggested that the developed system can be used for daily health care monitoring.