About
In order to measure
quantitatively the neuro-psychomotor conditions of an individual with a view to
subsequently detecting his/her state of health, it is necessary to obtain a set
of parameters such as reaction time, speed, strength and tremor. By processing
these parameters through the use of fuzzy logic it is possible to monitor an
individual's state of health, .i.e. whether he/she is healthy or affected by a
particular pathology such as Parkinson's disease, dementia, etc. The DDX
control system consists of a small board with an internal fuzzy microcontroller
that acquires, through the action on a button on the joystick, some important
parameters: reaction time, motion speed,
force of the finger on the button, and tremor and analyses them by fuzzy rules
in order to detect the patient’s disease class. Moreover this new device also
includes a system to detect vocal reaction. The resulting output can be
visualized through a display or transmitted by a communication interface.
Background
Reaction time, speed,
force, and tremor are parameters that are used to obtain a quantitative
instrumental determination of a patient’s neuro-psychophysical health. These
parameters have been used in the study of the progression of Parkinson’s
disease, a particularly degenerative neural process, but these parameters can
also be useful in detecting the wellness of a healthy person. As a matter of
fact, these measurements turn out to be an excellent method of finding reactive
parameters alteration due not only to a pathology, but also, for example, to
the use of drugs, alcohol, drugs used in the treatment of mental conditions, or
other substances that could affect a person’s reactive and coordination
capabilities.
Moreover, for a healthy
person, a continuous health monitoring turn out to be an excellent prevention
system of some pathology and is an excellent method to acquire consciousness of
how lifestyle and behavior have repercussions on one’s psychophysical
well-being.
The New Experimental System (Ddx)
DDX is the new
experimental bio-robotic system for the acquisition and restitution of human
finger movement data. It is a bio-robotic system designed and constructed with
medical and clinical data for the analysis of Parkinson’s disease. It was
originally used for the analysis of neural disturbances with quantitative
evaluation of both the response times and the dynamic action of the subject.
Software
By pressing the button,
three beacons are sent, signifying, respectively, beginning pressure, race end,
and force. First, the processor sends an impulse (like a warning) to the
buzzer, and the timer starts. It begins the sampling and, after a random
interval, sends another impulse to the buzzer (in order to obtain the starting
signal). The value of the timer is stored in to tj. When the patient has
pressed the push button, a beginning pressure beacon is sent, and the value of
the timer is assigned to ti This time is
what we call the “Reaction Time”. At the end of the movement stroke, an end-of-race
beacon is sent, and the value of the timer is assigned to tf. The speed of
patient motion can be calculated from these times. When the stroke ends, the
pressure is calculated using a simple circuit based on a strain gauge, a
filter, an amplifier and an analog to digital (A/D) converter. Tremor is
measured by a routine that reads data from the switching accelerometer on an
input/output (I/O) pin.
Abstract
This seminar deals with
the design and the development of a bio-robotic system based on fuzzy logic to
diagnose and monitor the neuro-psychophysical conditions of an individual. The
system, called DDX, is portable without losing efficiency and accuracy in
diagnosis and also provides the ability to transfer diagnosis through a remote
communication interface, in order to monitor the daily health of a patient.
Conclusions
In this article, an
innovative bio-robotic system for neuro-psychophysical health-condition
detection is presented. Today, systems of detection are very reliable but not
portable and do not generally allow diagnoses to be sent via the internet.
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