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Publications
Publications (217)
This paper reports the architecture of a low-cost smart crutches system for mobile health applications. The prototype is based on a set of sensorized crutches connected to a custom Android application. Crutches were instrumented with a 6-axis inertial measurement unit, a uniaxial load cell, WiFi connectivity, and a microcontroller for data collecti...
This work presents a new RF power amplifier characterization technique based on a Gaussian pulse, which is shown to approximate the envelope of a multicarrier signal with 0.5% error around the peaks. The standard deviation of the Gaussian pulses is inversely proportional to the I/Q signal bandwidth. This test signal is shown to accurately capture n...
While the undisturbed Earth’s magnetic field represents a fundamental information source for orientation purposes, magnetic distortions have been mostly considered as a source of error. However, when distortions are temporally stable and spatially distinctive, they could provide a unique magnetic landscape that can be used in different applications...
Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) is an increasingly used approach in the field of Steady-State Visually Evoked Potential (SSVEP) recognition. The efficacy of the method has been widely proven, and several variations have been proposed. However, most CCA variations tend to complicate the method, usually requiring additional user training or incr...
Background and objective
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and neurofeedback-guided motor imagery (MI) have attracted considerable interest in neurorehabilitation, given their ability to influence neuroplasticity. As tDCS has been shown to modulate event-related desynchronization (ERD), the neural signature of motor imagery detected fo...
Electrodes, bands and weights used for each subject for the composition of the control signal.
The table shows the electrodes, bands and weights chosen for each subject after calibration for the composition of the control signal. The chosen locations and bands reflect the spontaneous SMR modulation of each participant.
(PDF)
Results of ANOVA tests for spectral power analysis.
The table shows the complete results of the multiway ANOVA tests performed on spectral power in the two groups (cathodal and anodal) and conditions (rest or motor imagery). The factors included in the analysis were time, stimulation, frequency band, subject (between-subject factors) and electrodes...
Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is one of the most popular methods in the field of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) based on steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs). The efficacy of the method has been widely proved, and several variations have been proposed. However, most of the approaches still consider only the first canonical correl...
The EEG rhythmic activities of the somato-sensory cortex reveal event-related desynchronization (ERD) or event-related synchronization (ERS) in beta band (14–30 Hz) as subjects perform certain tasks or react to specific stimuli. Data reported for imagination of movement support the hypothesis that activation of one sensorimotor area (SMA) can be ac...
Motor imagery is a common control strategy in EEG-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). However, voluntary control of sensorimotor (SMR) rhythms by imagining a movement can be skilful and unintuitive and usually requires a varying amount of user training. To boost the training process, a whole class of BCI systems have been proposed, providing fe...
The Supplementary Material show the detailed composition, in terms of sequences of T, U and C modules, for each participant and session.
Inertial sensors are becoming widely used for the assessment of human movement in both clinical and research applications, thanks to their usability out of the laboratory. This work aims to propose a method for calibrating anatomical landmark position in the wearable sensor reference frame with an ease to use, portable and low cost device. An off-t...
Falls among older people are a widely documented public health problem. Automatic fall detection has recently gained huge importance because it could allow for the immediate communication of falls to medical assistance. The aim of this work is to present a novel wavelet-based approach to fall detection, focusing on the impact phase and using a data...
The gait analysis of subjects with short and non-uniform gait is difficult using the common commercial force platforms. The present work consists in the design, based on finite element method (FEM) analysis, of a force platform of two different dimensions (0.40 × 0.40 m and 0.80 × 0.40 m) considering static and dynamic simulation of their behavior....
Gait analysis of subjects with short and nonuniform gait is difficult using the common commercial force platforms. The present work consists in the design, based on finite element method (FEM) analysis, of a force platform of small dimensions (0.40x0.40 m) considering static and dynamic simulation of its behavior. The aim of this project is to impr...
This work describes a procedure to design a similitude-based brain computer interface system for communication. Five healthy subjects and two patients with disorders of consciousness took part in the study. A support vector machine classifier applied to EEG data was used to detect answers to simple yes/no questions, while reducing the number of req...
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) delivers low electric currents to the brain through the scalp. Constant electric currents induce shifts in neuronal membrane excitability, resulting in secondary changes in cortical activity. Concomitant electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring during tDCS can provide valuable information on the tDCS me...
One of the major concerns of recent studies is the correct discrimination between vegetative and minimally conscious state as the distinction between these two conditions has major implications for subsequent patient rehabilitation. In particular, it would be advantageous to establish communication with these patients. This work describes a procedu...
Brain injury is one of the main causes of long-term disability, and its rehabilitation is a challenge to healthcare
teams. This study developed a tele-rehabilitation system for the cognitive rehabilitation of persons with brain injury using
LabVIEW, a high-level graphical programming environment. The system offers several cognitive rehabilitation...
In human movement modeling, the problem of multi-link kinematics estimation by means of inertial measurement units has been investigated by several authors through efficient sensor fusion algorithms. In this perspective a single inertial measurement unit per link is required. This set-up is not cost-effective compared with a solution in which a sin...
Sufficient capacity and quality of performance of complex movement patterns during daily activity, such as standing up from a bed, is a prerequisite for independent living and also may be an indicator of fall risk. Up to now, the transfer from lying-to-sit-to-stand-to-walk (LSSW) was investigated by functional testing, subjective rating or for acti...
The reliable knowledge that model-based three-dimensional (3D) fluoroscopy can provide about in vivo joints kinematics is essential to diagnose orthopedic pathologies, develop new prosthesis, and evaluate clinical procedures. To exploit 3D fluoroscopy for the analysis of elbow kinematics, its use was evaluated considering a single model for the for...
This paper proposes a 2D functional evaluation tool for estimating subject-specific body segment parameters, which uses a simple motor task (repeated sit-to-stand, rSTS), recorded with one single-axis accelerometer (SAA) per segment and a force plate (FP). After this preliminary estimation, the accelerometer alone is used to make quasi-real-time pr...
Despite extensive preventive efforts, falls continue to be a major source of morbidity and mortality among elderly. Real-time detection of falls and their urgent communication to a telecare center may enable rapid medical assistance, thus increasing the sense of security of the elderly and reducing some of the negative consequences of falls. Many d...
Brief review of the main fall detection algorithms.
(DOCX)
A new method for the estimation of multi-link angular kinematics in the sagittal plane, using one single-axis accelerometer (SAA) per segment, is presented in this paper. A preliminary calibration, using SAAs and a reference system (en-coder or stereo-photogrammetry), allows the estimation of sensors position and orientation and segment lengths. Th...
Force platforms (FPs) are used in human movement analysis to measure the ground reaction force and the center of pressure (COP), and calculate derived kinetic and energetic quantities. We propose a re-calibration method that compensates for the FP non-linearity induced by top plate bending under loading. The method develops a previous solution that...
Tremor is one of the symptoms of several disorders of the central and peripheral nervous system, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). The impairment of postural control is another symptom of PD. The conventional method of posture analysis uses force plates, but accelerometers can be a valid and reliable alternative. Both these measurement techniques a...
Cementless joint prostheses require adequate initial press-fitting to achieve sufficient primary stability, which is necessary for bone ingrowth and implant success. A device was developed that measured intra-operatively the stability of a hip stem in the host bone. It included an excitatory piezoelectric system based on a ceramic multilayer bender...
Interaction between articular surfaces at the knee joint allows movement and stability. The knowledge of how this mechanism works in physiological conditions could be very useful for the development of new clinical procedures. The objective of this study was to develop a subject-specific model able to estimate the articular contact area at the tibi...
Non-circular (NC) chain rings were primarily designed to improve the mechanical effectiveness of cycling. Their use can be investigated for application in rehabilitation: they could provide a solution to design an effective exercise reducing joint loading.
The aim of this study was to analyze the differences in kinematics, energy consumption, and j...
Different 3D motion analysis protocols are currently available, but little is known regarding the level of similarity of their outcomes, e.g. whether a joint-angle waveform from one protocol can be interchanged with that measured by another protocol. Similarity assessments are therefore urgent to ease the comparison of results. In this context, a m...
Xsens system. (a) Data-logger (Xbus Master) with two SUs connected; (b) an SU with its local CS, in the global
A protocol named Outwalk was developed to easily measure the thorax-pelvis and lower-limb 3D kinematics on children with cerebral palsy (CP) and amputees during gait in free-living conditions, by means of an Inertial and Magnetic Measurement System (IMMS). Outwalk defines the anatomical/functional coordinate systems (CS) for each body segment throu...
A protocol named "Outwalk" was recently proposed to measure the thorax-pelvis and lower-limb kinematics during gait in free-living conditions, by means of an inertial and magnetic measurement system (IMMS). The aim of this study was to validate Outwalk on four healthy subjects when it is used in combination with a specific IMMS (Xsens Technologies,...
A system for the in-situ re-calibration of six-component force platforms is presented. The system consists of a device, a data-acquisition procedure and an algorithm. The device, simple and lightweight, is composed of a high-precision, 3-D load cell, loaded through a triangular stage, and precisely positioned on the force platform under re-calibrat...
A clinical motion analysis protocol was developed to measure the coordinated movements of shoulder-girdle and humerus (girdle-humeral rhythm--GD-H-R) during humerus flexion-extension (HFE) and ab-adduction (HAA), through an optoelectronic system. In particular, the protocol describes the GD-H-R with 2 angle-angle plots for each movement: girdle ele...
Motion analysis is a fundamental instrument for the quantification of joint function during daily living activities. Several devices can be used for this purpose. An overview of some of these methods is here presented, focusing mainly on (i) stereophotogrammetry (flexible and widespread), (ii) 3D fluoroscopy (accurate but invasive), and (iii) inert...
Biomechanics assists in understanding the living organ functions both in normal conditions and after alterations. It plays
an important role in the development of new prostheses, tools and procedures in the diagnostic, surgical and rehabilitative
fields. Although experimental approaches produce direct and reliable measurements of the variables of i...
The assessment of left ventricular apex (LVA) kinematics throughout the cardiac cycle could be useful for evaluating cardiac performance and efficiency. We proposed and evaluated in a sheep the use of a real-time 3D magnetic tracking system for the analysis of LVA kinematics. LVA kinematics was assessed using a real-time 3D magnetic tracking system...
For clinical application the quantification of the actual subject-specific kinematics is necessary. Soft tissue artefact (STA) propagation to joint kinematics can nullify the clinical interpretability of stereophotogrammetric analysis. STA was assessed to be strongly subject- and task-specific. The global optimisation, whose performance was assesse...
The knowledge of how cruciate ligaments stabilize the knee joint could be very useful during the execution of daily living activities for the development of clinical procedures. The objective of this study was to evaluate a cruciate ligament model that could achieve this knowledge while avoiding any destructive measurements in living healthy subjec...
This paper investigates the trunk postural modifications induced by a wearable device which assesses the trunk sway and provides biofeedback information through sonification of trunk kinematics. The device is based on an inertial wearable sensing unit including three mono-axial accelerometers and three rate gyroscopes embedded and mounted orthogona...
The absolute and relative pose of knee prosthesis components during activity can be reconstructed from the knowledge of the three-dimensional geometry of each component and from a single plane fluoroscopic projection of the replaced joint. The technique is based on the best alignment of each component design with the corresponding projection on the...
The periodic calibration of measurement devices, such as force platforms (FPs), guarantees and optimizes the quality of the acquired data. In this study, the theoretical validation of a portable system for the in-situ calibration of six-component FPs is presented. A least-squares algorithm, that estimates the FP re-calibration matrix, was designed...
If the biomechanic function of the different anatomical sub-structures of the knee joint was needed in physiological conditions, the only possible way is a modelling approach. Subject-specific geometries and kinematic data, acquired from the same living subject, were the foundations of the 3D quasi-static knee model developed. Each cruciate ligamen...
Cementless implants are mechanically stabilized during surgery by a press-fitting procedure. Good initial stability is crucial to avoid stem loosening and bone cracking, therefore, the surgeon must achieve optimal press-fitting. A possible approach to solve this problem and assist the surgeon in achieving the optimal compromise, involves the use of...
In this paper we introduce VR-Wheel, a platform combining cognitive and motor-learning tasks, intended for motor recovery in lower limb amputee and tetraplegia patients in post-traumatic conditions. The main feature of the platform is its versatility from the biomechanical, hardware and software viewpoint, since the design of the application is suc...
X-ray microtomography permits the nondestructive investigation of trabecular and cortical bone specimens without special preparation of the sample. To do a quantitative characterization, the cross-section images have to be binarized, separating bone from nonbone. For this purpose, a widely used method is uniform thresholding. However, for commonly...
Although both visual and audio biofeedback (BF) systems for postural control can reduce sway during stance, a direct comparison between the two systems has never been done. Further, comparing different coding designs of audio and visual BF may help in elucidating how BF information is integrated in the control of posture, and may improve knowledge...
Soft tissue artefact and anatomical landmark misplacement have been recognized as the most critical sources of error in gait analysis. The double calibration method was recently proposed to compensate for soft tissue artefact in knee kinematics. This compensation method resulted very effective in the absence of anatomical landmark misplacement. The...
The primary stability of cementless prostheses is critical for the long-term outcome of the operation. Surgeons are currently driven only by their experience in evaluating the extent of stem stability achieved. The aim of the present work was to develop a new device that enables the stability of a cementless stem to be quantitatively assessed intra...