Search

Identifying the appropriate needs for biomedical device design is challenging, especially for less structured environments. The paper proposes an alternate need-finding method based on Cultural Historical Activity Theory and expanded to explicitly examine the role of devices within a socioeconomic system. This is compared to a conventional need-finding technique in a preliminary study with engineering student teams. The initial results show that the Activity Theory-based technique allows teams to gain deeper insights into their needs space.

Learning to maintain standing balance in the presence of a paretic limb is an important recovery process for many stroke survivors. In this study, we used a robotic balance simulator to investigate whether manipulating medial-lateral or anterior-posterior torque contributions (i.e. input gains) could shift the control of balance toward a targeted lower limb in healthy controls. Manipulation of medial-lateral (ML) torque gains shifted the vertical load distribution toward the virtually weakened limb, but did not result in a significant shift in anterior-posterior (AP) torque control. Instead individual participants were observed to shift AP torque control in either direction, although participants more often shifted control toward the virtually weakened limb at larger ML asymmetries. In contrast, manipulation of AP torque gains did not produce any observable changes in measured torque signals. The shift in torque contributions during ML manipulations shows promise as an implicit training method for reducing weight-bearing asymmetry. However, further work is required to ensure both vertical load and AP torque control shift in the desired direction as well as to determine the applicability of the protocol in a patient population.