Mechanisms and methods for the design and fabrication of a mechanical interface between a wearable device and a human body segment

摘要

The system includes an instrument for determining the anatomical, biomechanical, and physiological properties of a body segment that includes one or more force sensitive probes is provided. A human operator actuates one or more force sensitive probes, wherein the force sensitive probes are positioned at the surface of the body segment. The operator pushes on the force sensitive probes with varying force applied on the body segment to measure tissue deflection forces. The instrument may include one or more of gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers capable of measuring changes in tissue deflection caused by the force sensitive probes relative to a grounded reference frame in 3-D space, wherein the tissue deflection force data and the change in tissue deflection data are used to compute segment tissue viscoelastic properties. The instrument may also be untethered or wireless.