IoT-Based Smart Glove For Physiotherapists.

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Overview

I started working on this project while interning at the Design Innovation Centre, a Government of India funded research lab that usually collaborates with the doctors of the local government hospitals to provide them with solutions to tackle critical problems they face in their everyday practice. One of our collaborations with the physiotherapists of PGIMER (Chandigarh, India) resulted in the development of this smart wearable glove. Physiotherapists employ measurement of hand finger joint movements and grip force to assess the recovery of the patients.

Problem

The collaborated physiotherapists explained to us one of the critical issues they have been facing for a long time now: "slow manual process for recovery measurement of the patients undergoing hand physiotherapy". We found out that the conventional method used to monitor a patient's hand recovery was using a manual instrument called a goniometer. The readings generated using the goniometer were then manually stored in a register for future record-keeping. This process served to be a cumbersome and time-consuming job. They demanded us to develop a device which is:

  • easy to use and handle

  • quicker

  • gave accurate readings

  • consumed less time per patient

Application 

Assessment of movements across various finger joints and the hand's gripping force is essential for helping physiotherapists detect the harm & impairment caused due to injuries on the human hand and determining its recovery.

The developed project finds its application in the medical field, assisting the physiotherapists in recovery monitoring of the patients undergoing hand physiotherapy. 

Development

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The IoT enabled wearable glove

The state-of-art wearable glove was made from a soft cotton material base. Flex sensors have adhered on each finger of these gloves, which could capture data based on strain developed in each finger during finger movements, along with a force-sensitive resistor on the palm region of the glove to measure the gripping force. An electronics-based circuit was developed to capture the sensors' bending strains (flexion) using an ESP-32 microprocessor. 

 
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Companion mobile application and data storage on cloud

The sensor readings produced from the glove were then sent to the Firebase (real-time database) wirelessly using Wi-Fi from where they could be viewed on the companion mobile interface. The cross-platform mobile application was developed using React-Native, making it suitable for both android and ios platforms. The app was created as an all-in-one application which:

  • Adds new patients and manages accounts of the existing ones (refer to image 1 below).

  • Displays the sensor readings (refer to image 2 below),

  • Saves the readings onto the cloud (google sheets) to keep track of recovery (refer to image 2 below)

  • Presents graphical recovery curves (refer to image 3 below)

  • Electronically maintains the patients' health record, including his medical history, cause and prescriptions over time

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Remote recovery monitoring mechanism

While we were in the process of developing the device, our further communication with the collaborated doctors made us realize a need for a "remote patient monitoring mechanism". As the frequent visits to the clinic could serve as a difficult task for some patients, especially the elderly and disabled, the remote recovery monitoring mechanism seemed an essential addition to the system. Thus, we modified the mobile app by adding a patient-user account to incorporate this mechanism in our project. With the remote patient monitoring mechanism, patients could use their specific accounts to send sensor readings from their homes to healthcare professionals at the facility.

Testing

This lab testing was carried out on 30 healthy subjects, including 23 males and 7 females aged 18 to 60 years, guided by an expert physiotherapist. Presently, the developed system is under clinical testing.

Advantages

  • Practically, the developed system reduced the time taken to measure the recovery from about 15 minutes while using the current conventional method to <1 minute, thus providing a more accessible, less cumbersome and quicker alternative.

  • The remote monitoring capability of the system makes it highly useful for elderly and disabled patients for whom clinic visits are arduous.

  • Also, in the present scenario of the COVID-19 pandemic, where remote consultation is becoming a priority, this product serves the need of the hour with its capability of remote patient monitoring.

Accomplishment

  • This project was ranked in the top 3 nationwide out of 1600 participating teams for Best Innovation at the Ministry of Human Resource Development's (India) Annual Innovation Festival 2019.

  • After which, it was selected as one of the top 5 projects nationwide for the Canada India International Acceleration program organized jointly by the Govt. of India and Carleton University, Canada. While representing my project, my journey at Carleton University taught me how to commercialize new technology and present innovative products to the market. 

 
 

  • Awarded the badge of Innovation Ambassador by AICTE, Ministry of Education (formerly MHRD), India/ Feb 2020

    Deputy High Commission of Canada, Deidre Kent and the Chairman of AICTE, Anil Sahasrabudhe rewarded me with an innovation ambassador badge for my project "Wearable Smart Glove" and taking the project to Canada India Acceleration Program 2019, Canada.