Motion Understanding

In this new area of investigation at the Center for Future Health we are asking the question, "What can be learned about an individual's health state by observing motion, activity and interactions in ones natural environment?" We are developing concepts and prototypes of "ambient health monitoring" technologies that become an invisible part of the user's environment and aggregate information in a private personal health record. In collaboration with medical researchers ranging from pediatricians to gerontologists we are testing the value of such information as health assessment tools applicable at all life stages from infancy to old age. An important feature of this approach is that it employs continuous longitudinal (over time) monitoring, which enables the individual and their health care providers to learn what is "normal" for the individual and to detect and monitor trends that may indicate developmental or incipient health issues. The goal is to move the detection of such conditions to the earliest possible stage to enable timely and minimal interventions for the maintenance of health and well-being.

Sensing modalities under development include inertial measurements for body motion and gait analysis employing accelerometers and gyroscopes, computer mouse tracking to monitor fine motor motion, RFID sensing to monitor activity and interactions in the home and community and sound measurements to monitor breathing and speech patterns. We are addressing the problems of making such sensing technologies accurate enough, small enough and low enough in power consumption to enable them to become truly ubiquitous and non-obtrusive. A central feature of our approach is that information is collected by the individual not by the environment to preserve the users personal privacy.

The development of a personal health record is also central to this research project. Motion, activity and interaction information can serve as vital signs in a complete health picture that also includes more traditional vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, blood sugar, and other information such as intake of food, medications, etc. We are interested in developing a seamless system that collects and aggregates data into useful health information for the individual and their health care providers.