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A University of Massachusetts Amherst research team is trying to unravel the secret of human motion.
To that end, the team has developed a prototype of a wearable device with several different sensors in it to create an integrated data snapshot of variables around the wearer’s physical activity, explained the project leader, Patty Freedson, professor at UMass and chair of the kinesiology department. One of the sensors can detect motion, another monitors breathing, and another detects if the person is in or outside of a building.
The data generated can be used with information about genetics and the environment to help understand human activity.
This UMass device project is unique, explained Richard Troiano, an epidemiologist with the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. Several other research projects are ongoing with this, attempting to tackle the same problem: trying to understand the influence of diet, physical activity, genetics, and the environment on physical health. Prior to this, researchers had to rely on a subject’s self assessment for evaluation. This sensor will be able to apply “some objective assessment of physical activity,” said Troiano.
The project began in August 2008 and has two more years, said Freedson. The NIH is funding it with a $2.1 million grant, announced in late 2007. Prior to this, monitoring a person required multiple separate sensors and there was no way to easily collapse the relevant data together, explained Freedson, making the process disjointed.
“The unique thing about this is that it’s interdisciplinary,” she said, as the project required putting together a team of investigators, including an engineer and mathematician. It also required a statistician to create models to interpret the collected data. “We are getting to the point of making final decisions on the final suite of sensors that will be used in lab calibration and testing,” said Freedson.
Potentially, Florida exercise monitoring device maker ActiGraph LLC may commercialize the device after the development work wraps, “if there is a viable market,” stated a company spokeswoman. Any commercialization must be done in partnership with UMass, said Freedson.
UMass integrated sensor device team
Business: Developing a way to help measure human performance with wearable sensors
Project leader: Patty Freedson, head of kinesiology at UMass Amherst
Team includes: Robert Gao of UConn, and John Staudenmayer and Jane Kent-Braun of UMass
Project started: 2008
NIH funded: $2.1 million
Project wraps in 2012
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