A velostat-based pressure-sensitive mat for center-of-pressure measurements: A preliminary study

Martinez-Cesteros J. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Medrano-Sanchez C. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Plaza-Garcia I. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Igual-Catalan R. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Albiol-Pérez S. (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Center-of-pressure (CoP) displacements play a key role in studies assessing postural stability. The accepted instrument to measure CoP trajectories is the force platform, but pressure-sensitive mats (PSMs) are an alternative composed of a matrix of sensitive cells. A typical cell comprises two electrodes with piezoresistive material in between, while a force platform has a force sensor at each of its corners. In this paper, we compare a homemade Velostat-based PSM and an affordable commercial mat with a commercial force platform in a test series with 42 healthy volunteers in single-legged trials (29 males, 13 females; height 1.74 (0.09) m, weight 74.3 (16.34) kg, age 31.21 (12.66) years). The aim of the research was to perform a preliminary study of the performance of our prototype to measure CoP, and more specifically, the standard deviation of the CoP path on both axes, the medial–lateral and anterior–posterior. We could thus discover several improvements for future clinical applications. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for agreement in the base experiment showed a moderate value for the prototype (0.38 to 0.63) and lower values for the commercial mat (0.11 to 0.12). However, we identified several factors that were relevant to improve ICC and reduce error by considering several processing options: (i) the known crosstalk problem between cells that appears in this kind of mats must be eliminated; (ii) the response time of the sensor has to be taken into account; and (iii) increasing the mat resolution also improves agreement. Therefore, as future work, we plan to test the improved version of the prototype in a clinical environment.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18115958

Año: 2021

Publicado en: International journal of environmental research and public health 18, 11 (2021), 5958 [13 pp.]
ISSN: 1661-7827

Factor impacto JCR: 4.614 (2021)

Categ. JCR: PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH rank: 45 / 182 = 0.247 (2021) - Q1 - T1
Categ. JCR: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES rank: 100 / 279 = 0.358 (2021) - Q2 - T2
Categ. JCR: PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH rank: 71 / 210 = 0.338 (2021) - Q2 - T2

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 4.5 - Medicine (Q2) - Environmental Science (Q2)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.814 - Pollution (Q1) - Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA-FEDER/T49-20R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/ISCIII-FIS/PI17-00465
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MCIU/FPU18-04282

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Arquit.Tecnología Comput. (Dpto. Informát.Ingenie.Sistms.)
Área (Departamento): Área Tecnología Electrónica (Dpto. Ingeniería Electrón.Com.)
Área (Departamento): Área Ingeniería Eléctrica (Dpto. Ingeniería Eléctrica)