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Wearable sensing and feedback devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous for measuring human movement in research laboratories, medical clinics, and in consumer goods. Advances in computation and miniaturization have enabled sensing for gait assessment; these technologies are then used in interventions to provide feedback that facilitates changes in gait or enhances sensory capabilities. This talk will focus on vibration as the primary method of providing feedback. I will discuss the use of vibrotactile arrays to communicate plantar foot pressure in users of lower-limb prosthetics, as a synthetic form of sensory feedback. Wearable vibrating units can also be used as a cue to retrain gait, and I will describe my preliminary work in gait retraining as a conservative treatment for knee osteoarthritis. This talk will cover the development and evaluation of these haptic devices and establish their impact within the greater context of clinical biomechanics.
Nataliya Rokhmanova (Carnegie Mellon University)
Nataliya is a Mechanical Engineering PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University, co-advised by Eni Halilaj at CMU and Katherine J. Kuchenbecker at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Her research interests include the use of haptics to enhance human performance. She received her B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington, and is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.