5. Portable Wearable and Wireless Systems for Gait and Reflex Response Quantification

With the advent of wireless technology and inertial measurement units, the prevalence of wireless accelerometers is addressed for quantification of gait, reflex response, and reflex latency. Over the course of four generations of research, development, testing, and evaluation the ability to quantify patellar tendon reflex response and latency has been achieved in an accurate, reliable, and reproducible manner. As a transitional phase to the research, development, testing, and evaluation cycle an artificial reflex device was also applied. The central themes to the wireless quantified reflex device are tandem operated wireless accelerometer nodes that are effectively wearable for deriving response and latency and a potential energy impact pendulum for evoking the patellar tendon reflex. The successful application of these wireless accelerometers that are wearable has been further extended toward the quantification of hemiplegic gait, and real-time modification of hemiplegic gait through the quantified feedback of Virtual Proprioception. Other developments regarding the use of wireless accelerometers that are wearable are further addressed.