Title:  Wearable Technologies for Knee Health Monitoring using Bioimpedance and Acoustical Emissions

Committee:

Dr. Omer Inan, ECE, Chair , Advisor

Dr. Pamela Bhatti, ECE

Dr. Fatih Sarioglu, ECE

Dr. Hua Wang, ECE

Dr. Geza Kogler, Bio Sciences

Abstract:

The objective of this work is to address the gap in the area of wearable knee joint health assessment. Knee injuries are among the most common reasons for doctor’s visits. The physical examinations of the joint during these visits are typically limited to qualitative observations. Examination methods based on diagnostic imaging are expensive and time consuming. Beyond the clinic, such as in the home or with wearable technologies, there are no viable solutions available for providing in-depth, quantitative joint health assessment. Developing novel, ubiquitous technologies for joint health assessment would enable personalized, feedback-controlled therapies for patients. Towards the proposed research goal, sensing systems and signal processing techniques that can provide biomarkers for knee joint health assessment are developed and discussed. Two types of physiological signals acquired from the knee joint are considered for this purpose: (1) electrical bioimpedance and (2) acoustic emission signals.