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The number of elderlies increases over the years and has triggered concerns on healthcare system. The concerns includes increasing cost on medication, healthcare facilities and welfares. Family members and the elderly could feel increasing stress as health condition of the elderly deteriorates including the capability to stay mobile and walk confidently. An elderly could fall due to knee buckling, a common syndrome of weakness due to aging. It may cause pain and injuries and hence fears to stay mobile. As a result, this would give a negative effect to mental and physical health. The aim of this project is to boost the confidence and willingness to regain walking and stay mobile. A mechatronic knee orthotic to prevent falling due to knee buckling is proposed. It would detect the moment of knee buckling and lock immediately a knee movement. As a result, the elderly could regain self-balance and avoid falling. The experience could boost the confidence to regain walking and stay mobile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is reported that the prevalence of obesity and overweight among the teenagers is at alarming level. Obesity might develop into further health issues as they grow up into adults. Better lifestyle and modern technologies such as internet and smart phones have encouraged sedentary lifestyle. Lack of physical activities and uncontrolled food intake would be the main causes. The project aims at developing a portable internet-of-thing (IoT) instrument to monitor their physical activities. The instrument is designed to wrap around the arm and is a battery-powered microcontroller system, equipped with a global-positioning-system (GPS) sensor and a movement sensor (accelerometer). The system would synchronize to the internet via a smart phone. The location and body movements are recorded and could be monitored remotely by another user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ergonomics has gained attention and take into consideration by the workers in the different fields of works recently. It has given a huge impact on the workers comfort which directly affects the work efficiency and productivity. The workers have claimed to suffer from the painful postures and injuries in their workplace. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) is the most common problem frequently reported by the workers. This problem occurs due to the lack of knowledge and alertness from the workers to the ergonomic in their surroundings. This paper intends to review the approaches and instruments used by the previous works of the researchers in the evaluation of the ergonomics. The two main assessment methods often used for ergonomic evaluation are Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). Popular devices are Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and Microsoft Kinect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes on the design of a walker for the prevention of falling among elderlies or patients during rehabilitation whenever they use a walker to assist them. Fall happens due to impaired balance or gait problem. The assistive device is designed by applying stability concept and an accelerometric fall detection system is included. The accelerometric fall detection system acts as an alerting device that acquires body accelerometric data and detect fall. Recorded accelerometric data could be useful for further assessment. Structural strength of the walker was verified via iterations of simulation using finite element analysis, before being fabricated. Experiments were conducted to identify the fall patterns using accelerometric data. The design process and detection of fall pattern demonstrates the design of a walker that could support the user without fail and alerts the helper, thus salvaging the users from injuries due to fall and unattended situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]