Development of Wireless Networked Tiny Orientation Device for Wearable Motion Capture and Measurement of Walking Around, Walking Up and Down, and Jumping Tasks

In this paper, we developed a tiny orientation device equipped with a wireless network function for a wearable motion capture. The wearable motion capture is defined that it not only measures the posture of the human body but also collects environmental information and the human´s internal state simultaneously and easily. Because the realized device automatically configures wireless networks and is small enough to attach it anywhere, it is easy to gather any sensor information. The feature of the orientation estimation method is that models are switched according to the environment to exclude the effect of motion disturbances. In experiments, by integrating of sole sensors and the orientation sensors, walking around, walking up and down, and jumping tasks were successfully measured. Because it is difficult to measure these motions with only the inertial sensors, it showed the importance of integrating various sensors for acquiring human motion.