Real-Time Analysis of Kinematics during Manual Wheelchair Propulsion

Wrist-worn activity trackers have become a common technology used in our everyday life.; Hhowever, they have not yet been adapted to provide feedback to manual wheelchair users to reduce pain and improve efficiency. This is a problem that needs addressing as ~70% of wheelchair users report having experienced upper-limb joint pain as a result of using their manual wheelchair. This project involvesis solving this problem by developing a custom wrist-worn device that monitors propulsion kinematics, such as push patterns, and then uses biomechanics to identify patterns associated with pain. This information, provided real-time to manual wheelchair users, has the ability to provide training and feedback that could help reduce upper-limb pain in manual wheelchair users.