Rehabilitation Technology
In a collaboration with Simbex, LLP (www.simbex.com) we have developed a platform that delivers user-specified postural disturbances. Disturbances having displacements small as a centimeter can be delivered with precision. When disturbances have extended durations of uniform velocity the platform acts as a standard treadmill. Based on the findings of Owings et al. (2001), the technology has been used in a study that has demonstrated the efficacy of a fall-prevention protocol to reduce falls in older women following a laboratory-induced trip (Grabiner et al., in review).
The ActiveStep platform delivers disturbances using microprocessor controlled stepper motors to drive dual-belts. The disturbances are designed by the user through a software-interface. Disturbance profiles, established for each belt independently, are vector quantities possessing magnitude and direction. Variables that may be specified include: