Alan Godfrey

Northumbria University · School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences

Highlights • Maximum resting period (MRP) was assessed in community-based ambulation • Ambulation was objectively assessed with an accelerometer in 97 adults for 7 days • MRP impacts on volume, variability, pattern outcomes and attainment of guidelines • Standardised algorithms are needed to aid ambulatory interpretation The aim of this study was...

The aims of this study were to (i) investigate instrumented physical capability (iCap) as a valid method during a large study and (ii) determine whether iCap can provide important additional features of postural control and gait to categorise cohorts not previously possible with manual recordings. Cross-sectional analysis involving instrumented tes...

retirement is a major life change that is likely to affect lifestyles and yet little is still known about its influence on physical activity (PA). This study objectively quantified sedentary behaviour and ambulatory activity outcomes in retired and non-retired older, community-dwelling adults. PA was quantified in 98 community-dwelling older adults...

Falls, from functional mobility impairments, can result from various factors including disease and environmental factors, and are not exclusive to the elderly. Falls and mobility impairments are often associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, obesity, and vision problems, impacting a wide range of demographics. There is a need for timely...

Instability and lack of fluid mobility during daily activities are often prevalent among older adults and those with neurodegenerative disorders due to the combined effects of age-related changes in the body and the impact of neurodegenerative conditions on motor function. Parkinson's Disease stands out among these disorders due to its high prevale...

The role of digital technology in sport has seen increasing use. For example, video recordings from stationery cameras are now almost mainstream to enable coaches and athletes painstakingly examine performance by pausing, rewinding, and slowing advancing video data (frame by frame) to examine fine motor movements. However, subjective opinion and vi...

Digital technologies have a critical role to play in contemporary sporting contexts by aiding performance and reducing injury. Indeed, digital technologies have become commonplace in professional sports, with organisations investing financial and time resources to accurately and reliably quantify training and competition characteristics to obtain a...

The analysis of running gait has conventionally taken place within an expensive and restricted laboratory space, with wearable technology offering a practical, cost-effective, and unobtrusive way to examine running gait in more natural environments. This pilot study presents a wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU) setup for the continuous analys...

Eye movement assessment is a key component of neurological evaluation, offering valuable insights into neural deficits and underlying mechanisms. This narrative review explores the emerging subject of digital eye-movement outcomes (DEMOs) and their potential as sensitive biomarkers for neurological impairment. Eye tracking has become a useful metho...

Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) have emerged as popular tools for gait related fall risk analysis due to their low cost, portability, and ability to capture spatial and temporal gait characteristics (e.g., step length and step time, respectively). Free-living analysis using IMUs is an unobtrusive means for wearers to perform daily activities with...

Running biomechanics have traditionally been analysed in laboratory settings, but this may not reflect natural running gait. Wearable technology has the potential to enable precise monitoring of running gait beyond the laboratory. This study aimed to evaluate the analytical validity and intra-session reliability of temporal running gait outcomes me...

Ocular microtremor (OMT) is a fixational eye movement that cannot be seen with the naked eye but is always present, even when the eye appears motionless/still. The link between OMT and brain function provides a strong rationale for investigation as there lies potential for its use as a biomarker in populations with neurological impairments. OMT fre...

Contemporary research to better understand free-living fall risk assessment in Parkinson’s disease (PD) often relies on the use of wearable inertial-based measurement units (IMUs) to quantify useful temporal and spatial gait characteristics (e.g., step time, step length). Although use of IMUs is useful to understand some intrinsics PD fall-risk fac...

Falls in people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD) under- score the need for precise sensing tools to robustly assess gait and deliver tailored rehabilitation. Using wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) offers a practical alternative to assess gait and intervene in any location. This study develops a robust and innovative smartphone application/...

Background: Eye-tracking technology could be used to study human factors during teamwork. Objectives: This work aimed to compare the visual attention (VA) of a team member acting as both a team leader and managing the airway, compared to a team member performing the focused task of managing the airway in the presence of a dedicated team leader. Thi...

Falls are a major concern for people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD), but accurately assessing real world falls risk beyond the clinic is challenging. Contemporary technologies could enable the capture of objective and high-resolution data to better inform falls risk through measurement of everyday factors (e.g., obstacles) that contribute to falls...

Background Falls are common in a range of clinical cohorts, where routine risk assessment often comprises subjective visual observation only. Typically, observational assessment involves evaluation of an individual’s gait during scripted walking protocols within a lab to identify deficits that potentially increase fall risk, but subtle deficits may...

OBJECTIVE: Vestibular/ocular deficits occur with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The vestibular/ocular motor screening (VOMS) tool is used to assess individuals post-mTBI, which primarily relies upon subjective self-reported symptoms. Instrumenting the VOMS (iVOMS) with technology may allow for more objective assessment post-mTBI, which reflect...

In recent years the intersection of wearable technologies and machine learning (ML) based deep learning (DL) approaches have highlighted their potential in sleep research. Yet, a recent study published in NPJ Digital Medicine highlights the generalization limitations of DL models in sleep-wake classification using actigraphy data. Here, this articl...

Background Physical limitations are frequent and debilitating after sarcoma treatment. Markerless motion capture (MMC) could measure these limitations. Historically expensive cumbersome systems have posed barriers to clinical translation. Research question Can inexpensive MMC [using Microsoft KinectTM] assess functional outcomes after sarcoma surg...

The use of wearable technologies (wearables) in neuroscience could have significant potential to e.g., better understand and manage disorders like Parkinson's Disease (PD), epilepsy, and stroke. Wearables could routinely offer insights by providing digital biomarkers during daily activities, enhancing clinical understanding of real-world challenges...

Wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) are being used to quantify gait characteristics that are associated with increased fall risk, but the current limitation is the lack of contextual information which would clarify IMU data. Use of wearable video-based cameras would provide a comprehensive understanding of an individual’s habitual fall risk,...

Objective SRC diagnosis utilises clinical judgement [1–3], and is often supported by the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT5). The use of pragmatic accessible/scalable digital tools may improve diagnosis and understanding of interconnected relationships in SRC deficits [4–7]. Our aim was to explore comparison of SCAT5 outcomes to digital tools...

Mobility challenges threaten physical independence and good quality of life. Often, mobility can be improved through gait rehabilitation and specifically use of cueing through prescribed audi-tory, visual, and/or tactile cues. Each has shown use to rectify abnormal gait patterns, improving mobility. Yet, a limitation remains i.e., long-term engagem...

Purpose: The subjective nature of the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT5), means SRC diagnosis is based on clinical judgment, with focus given to symptom resolution to determine readiness to play, which may hinder understanding of the interconnected nature and relationships in deficit recovery. Here we investigate results from an experimental...

Navigating contemporary healthcare, wearable technology and smartphones are marking the dawn of a transformative era in patient observation and personalised care. Wearables, equipped with various sensing technologies (e.g., accelerometer for movement, optics for heart rate), are increasingly being recognised for their expansive potential in (remote...

Instrumented gait through objective data is important in clinical rehabilitation as it provides objective mobility assessment. Typically, those data help pinpoint the root causes of mobility impairments, subsequently enabling the foundation for the development of effective rehabilitation protocols/programs. Inertial sensors-based wearables such as...

Objective: Gait assessments have traditionally been analysed in laboratory settings, but this may not reflect natural gait. Wearable technology may offer an alternative due to its versatility. The purpose of the study was to establish the validity and reliability of temporal gait outcomes calculated by the DANU Sports System, against a 3D motion c...

Background Visual cues can improve gait in Parkinson’s disease (PD), including those experiencing freezing of gait (FOG). However, responses are variable and underpinning mechanisms remain unclear. Visuo-cognitive processing (measured through visual exploration) has been implicated in cue response, but this has not been comprehensively examined. O...

Quantitative running gait analysis is an important tool that provides beneficial outcomes to injury risk/recovery or performance assessment. Wearable devices have allowed running gait to be evaluated in any environment (i.e., laboratory or real-world settings), yet there are a plethora of different grades of devices (i.e., research-grade, commercia...

The adoption of digital technologies in healthcare, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a well-prepared workforce capable of implementing those technologies. Here, we examine the role and impact of digital fellowships in facilitating digital transformation in healthcare systems. Digital fellowships are structured educational programmes d...

Objective: This study aims to examine OMT in people with PD (PwPD) compared to healthy older adults. Identifying OMT as a PD biomarker could better support clinical assessment, enabling improved provision of care to patients with advanced disease monitoring. Background: Ocular microtremor (OMT) is a fixational eye movement that cannot be seen with...

Ocular microtremor (OMT) is the smallest of three involuntary fixational micro eye movements, which has led to it being under researched in comparison. The link between OMT and brain function generates a strong rationale for further study as there is potential for its use as a biomarker in populations with neurological injury and disease. This stru...

Fall risk assessment can be informed by understanding mobility/gait. Contemporary mobility analysis is being progressed by wearable inertial measurement units (IMU). Typically, IMUs gather temporal mobility-based outcomes (e.g., step time) from labs/clinics or beyond, capturing data for habitually informed fall risk. However, a thorough understandi...

Contemporary wearables like smartwatches are often equipped with advanced sensors and have associated algorithms to aid researchers monitor physiological outcomes like physical activity levels, sleep patterns or heart rate in free living environments. But here's the catch: all that valuable data is often collected separately because the sensors don...

Ocular microtremor (OMT) is a fixational eye movement that cannot be seen with the naked eye but is always present, even when the eye appears motionless/still. The link between OMT and brain function generates a strong rationale for investigation as there lies potential for its use as a biomarker in populations of neurological impairments. OMT freq...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to coproduce a smart-phone application for digital falls reporting in people with Parkinson disease (PD) and to determine usability using an explanatory mixed-methods approach. Methods: This study was undertaken in 3 phases. Phase 1 was the development phase, in which people with PD were recruited as co-r...

Normal ankle function provides a key contribution to everyday activities, particularly step/stair ascent and descent, where many falls occur. The rising to up-on-the-toes (UTT) 30 second test (UTT-30) is used in the clinical assessment of ankle muscle strength/function and endurance and is typically assessed by an observer counting the UTT movement...

Health and wellness/wellbeing are multifaceted topics further complicated when trying to understand environmental impact. Typically, there has been a one size fits all approach when trying to understand the 3-way interaction but that is a limited approach. Equally, measurement (of each) has often used a limited set of outcomes during short periods...

Walking/gait quality is a useful clinical tool to assess general health and is now broadly described as the sixth vital sign. This has been mediated by advances in sensing technology including instrumented walkways and three-dimensional motion capture. However, it is wearable technology innovation that has spawned the utmost growth in instrumented...

This book presents the proceedings of ICITS 2022 covering different tracks in the field of Sports Engineering and Technology, namely, Instrumentation, Materials, Data Analytics, Biomechanics, Simulation, Equipment Design and Performance Analysis, amongst others. This collection of articles deliberates the key challenges as well as technological inn...

Wearable technologies are becoming ever more popular as suggested tools for use in modern medicine. Studies evidence their growing pragmatism and provision of objective data for a more informative and personalised approach to patient care. Yet many wearables are one dimensional, despite the underlying technology being common across a large array of...

Advancements in Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have enabled the manufacture of affordable and efficient wearable devices. In sensor-based gait analysis, motion and biofeedback sensor devices are easily attached to different parts of the body. Instrumentation of gait using different sensor technologies enables researchers and clinicians to ca...

Background: Monitoring Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is important to better understand occupant health. Passive IEQ monitoring with digital technologies may provide insightful quan-titative data to better inform e.g., health interventions. Yet, many traditional approaches with known IEQ technologies have limited utility due to high costs or co...

Fall risk assessment needs contemporary approaches based on habitual data. Currently, inertial measurement unit (IMU) based wearables are used to inform free-living spatio-temporal gait characteristics to inform mobility assessment. Typically, a fluctuation of those characteristics will infer an increased fall risk. However, current approaches with...

Running gait assessment is essential for development of technique optimization strategies as well as to inform injury prevention and rehabilitation. Currently, running gait assessment relies on (i) visual assessment, exhibiting subjectivity and limited reliability, or (ii) use of instrumented approaches, which often carry high costs and can be intr...

Inertial sensor-based human activity recognition (HAR) has a range of healthcare applications as it can indicate overall health status or functional capabilities of people with impaired mobility. Typically, artificial intelligence models achieve high recognition accuracies when trained with rich and diverse inertial datasets. However, obtaining suc...

Background: Turning is a complex measure of gait that accounts for over 50% of daily steps. Traditionally, turning has been measured in a research grade la-boratory setting, however, there is demand for a low-cost and portable solution to measure turning using wearable technology. This study aimed to determine the suitability of a low-cost inertial...

Exploring the practicality and feasibility of multimodal Sports Related Concussion (SRC) assessments compared to the reference standard (SCAT5) in university athletes. Significant challenges remain in the monitoring and assessment of suspected Sports Related Concussion (SRC). The most commonly used mechanism within amateur sports, is the 5th versi...

Background Running gait assessment has traditionally been performed using subjective observation or expensive laboratory-based objective technologies, such as 3D motion capture or force plates. However, recent developments in wearable devices allow for continuous monitoring and analysis of running mechanics in any environment. Objective measurement...

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI or concussion) is receiving increased attention due to the incidence in contact sports and limitations with subjective (pen and paper) diagnostic approaches. If an mTBI is undiagnosed and the athlete prematurely returns to play, it can result in serious short-term and/or long-term health complications. This demonst...

Introduction: Following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), patients are often advised to restrict physical activity until full symptom resolution followed by gradual return to activity. However, extended rest periods may prolong recovery and contribute to persistent symptoms. Emerging evidence suggests early active rehabilitation that increases he...

Buildings account for approximately 40% of the energy consumption across the European Union, so there is a requirement to strive for better energy performance to reduce the global impact of urbanised societies. However, energy performant buildings can negatively impact building occupants (e.g., comfort, health and/or wellbeing) due to a trade-off b...

The mechanical output at the ankle provides key contribution to everyday activities, particularly step/stair ascent and descent. Age-related decline in ankle functioning can lead to an increased risk of falls on steps and stairs. The rising up-on-the-toes (UTT) 30-second test (UTT-30) is used in the clinical assessment of ankle muscle strength/func...

Gait assessment is essential to understand injury prevention mechanisms during running, where high-impact forces can lead to a range of injuries in the lower extremities. Information regarding the running style to increase efficiency and/or selection of the correct running equipment, such as shoe type, can minimize the risk of injury, e.g., matchin...

Background Falls in older adults are a critical public health problem. As a means to assess fall risks, free-living digital biomarkers (FLDBs), including spatiotemporal gait measures, drawn from wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU) data have been investigated to identify those at high risk. Although gait-related FLDBs can be impacted by intrins...

Contemporary approaches to gait assessment use wearable devices within free-living environments to capture habitual information, which is more informative compared to data capture in the lab. Wearables range from inertial to camera-based technologies but pragmatic challenges such as analysis of big data from heterogenous environments exist. For exa...

BACKGROUND & AIM: Sports-Related Concussion (SRC) encompasses symptom, visual, cognitive and motor impairments, where accurate and timely recognition is crucial to reduce incidences of misdiagnosis, which can increase morbidity risk [1]. Yet current non-digital tools, e.g Sports Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT5) criteria [2] relies on symptom reso...

Running gait assessment and running shoe recommendation is important for the injury prevention of runners who exhibit different skill-levels and running styles. Traditionally, running gait assessment for shoe recommendation relies upon a combination of trained professionals (e.g., sports-therapists, physiotherapists) and complex equipment such as m...