Sit-to-stand timing measurements using pressure sensitive technology

Measuring and analyzing the sit-to-stand movement performed by an individual when rising from their bed can be used to document health and mobility. This paper investigates measuring sit-to-stand timing from young healthy subjects using non-invasive pressure sensitive array technology. First, it describes the pressure sensitive array, the experiment setup and data collection process. Next, three methods for measuring sit-to-stand timing are examined. These include a method based on the combination of bed and foot pressure, an image-based method and a pressure signal-based method. Challenges, limitations and results are shown for each using data collected from 10 young healthy subjects. The pressure signal-based method measures the sit-to-stand time more effectively when comparing to video data. The further development of this method is then presented; this includes analyzing the pressure signal to detect phases that make up the sit-to-stand movement and a sample result for one young healthy subject is presented.