Wearable shoe-based device for rehabilitation of stroke patients

Regaining the ability to walk after a stroke is a major rehabilitation goal. Rehabilitation strategies that are task oriented and intensive can drive cortical reorganization and increase activity levels in people after a stroke. This paper describes a novel, wearable device for use with such rehabilitation strategies. The device is based on the combination of a smartphone and in-shoe sensors, and is designed to operate in free living conditions. Data collected from the device can be used for automatic recognition of postures and activities, characterization of extremity use and to provide behavioral enhancing feedback to patients recovering from a stroke. The proposed wearable platform´s operation was validated in a small scale study involving three healthy individuals. The average accuracy of classification of three postures and activities was over 99%. Based on the results of validation and previously reported results on recognition of postures and activities in stroke patients, it is anticipated that recognition of postures and activities may be performed with high accuracy in free living conditions.