A noninvasive vibrotactile stimulator prosthesis for bilateral vestibular dysfunction

Patients with bilateral vestibular disease (BVD) often present a severe balance disability and treatment of BVD disease is complex and time-consuming. Patients can be treated with balance retraining exercises but the improvement is not likely to be full recovery. Based on brain plasticity and sensory substitution, this paper proposed noninvasive vibrotactile stimulator prosthesis to help BVD patients to get their bodies´ movement information which can be used to keep balance. We designed a vestibular sensory substitution system, called vibrotactile balance belt, which feed the patients with balance information an array of vibrotactile stimulators. With proper physical training and exercises, patients can regain or enhance their balance ability with the help of vibrotactile stimulators. In this paper, we designed a prototype system, which used acceleration sensor, gyro sensor and magnetic field sensor to detect body´s linear and rotational motion. Multiple vibrotactile stimulator encodings were considered. And we also discussed the optimal stimulus encoding and the stimulus position to avoid the problem of reduced sensitivity effect while the stimulatory signals frequently generated.