Postural stability measurement using tablet PC

Abstract

Although posturography and motion capture system are useful to measure postural stability, they are difficult to transfer or setup. Because most tablet PCs are equipped with an accelerometer and storage media, they can measure and record motion in single units. In an attempt to identify a measuring system that would be excellent in portability and handiness, we investigated the usefulness of a tablet PC to measure the body stability. First, we assessed the properties of the accelerometer in four tablet PCs, as compared to an inertial sensor, the accuracy of which was known. We found that all the tablet PCs validated in this study had good accuracy, good linearity, and there were little inter-device differences. Then, we investigated whether the acceleration data obtained with the tablet PC could determine the postural stability in normal subjects. Except for 1 subject, who was an outlier, the acceleration data provided with the tablet PCs were significantly correlated with the Center of Position data. We consider that tablet PCs could be useful devices to measure the postural stability in humans.