Assistive Technology for Individuals with Impaired Balance

The ability of people to maintain their balance is a rising problem, as is how to assess it and provide a rehabilitation tool for the impaired. In this paper, an automated technique to assess and evaluate the balance of impaired people using inertial measurement units (IMUs) and virtual reality techniques is presented. The IMUs-based system was built with the help of the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) Test to provide a reference for the measurements. A rehabilitation game was proposed to improve the individuals’ ability to keep themselves balanced during different physical activities. The system achieved a good result in the detection of the balance disturbance compared to the BBS results. The study provided an automated system for the evaluation of the balance and an interactive rehabilitation game.