Assessment of Limb Movement Activities Using Wearable Ultra-Wideband Technology

This article presents ultra-wideband (UWB) body-centric channel parameters for assessing the performance of the physical activities suitable for rehabilitation and physiotherapy purposes in the healthcare domain. Two channel parameters, path loss magnitude and rms delay spread, have been proposed to study the patterns/trends of various upper and lower limb activities for different positions. The channel for various activities has been distinguished into line of sight (LOS) and non-line of sight (NLOS) links. Three orientations of the wearable antenna have been considered for the placement on the wrist/ankle which are outer, inner, and front region, leading to significant differences in the channel parameters while performing physical exercises. The channel parameter values obtained are based on the orientation/placement of the wearable antenna, the distance between the two wearable nodes and the amount of obstruction caused by the human body, e.g., thigh/torso region. The proposed method enables effective monitoring capabilities and computes patterns of different exercises for all the limb positions measured, which in turn will aid in accurate human activity monitoring.