Conversations in BME

T he possibility of gathering reliable information about movement characteristics during activities of daily living holds particular appeal for researchers. Data such as this could be used to analyze the performance of individuals undergoing rehabilitation and to provide vital information on whether or not there is an improvement during a neurorehabilitation protocol. Wearable devices are particularly promising toward this aim, because they can be used in unstructured environments (e.g., at home). Recently, two different approaches in this area have become very popular and show promising performance: the use of inertial sensors together with advanced algorithms (e.g., Kalman filters) and the development of e-textile, in which the sensing technology is directly embroidered into the garment worn by the user. Prof. Peter Veltink from the University of Twente and Prof. Danilo De Rossi from the University of Pisa are pioneers in these two fields. Peter was among the early researchers who worked to combine different inertial sensors to extract joint kinematics, whereas Danilo developed one of the first e-textile sensing devices to be used in biomedical applications, primarily in functional assessment and rehabilitation. Peter and Danilo analyze the pros and cons of these two approaches to wearable technology in this conversation.