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Clinic-Oriented Feasibility of a Sensor-Fused Wearable for Upper-Limb Function

Signal Processing 2025-10-28 v1 Human-Computer Interaction Machine Learning Robotics Neurons and Cognition

Abstract

Background: Upper-limb weakness and tremor (4--12 Hz) limit activities of daily living (ADL) and reduce adherence to home rehabilitation. Objective: To assess technical feasibility and clinician-relevant signals of a sensor-fused wearable targeting the triceps brachii and extensor pollicis brevis. Methods: A lightweight node integrates surface EMG (1 kHz), IMU (100--200 Hz), and flex/force sensors with on-device INT8 inference (Tiny 1D-CNN/Transformer) and a safety-bounded assist policy (angle/torque/jerk limits; stall/time-out). Healthy adults (n = 12) performed three ADL-like tasks. Primary outcomes: Tremor Index (TI), range of motion (ROM), repetitions (Reps min1^{-1}). Secondary: EMG median-frequency slope (fatigue trend), closed-loop latency, session completion, and device-related adverse events. Analyses used subject-level paired medians with BCa 95\% CIs; exact Wilcoxon pp-values are reported in the Results. Results: Assistance was associated with lower tremor prominence and improved task throughput: TI decreased by 0.092-0.092 (95\% CI [0.102-0.102, 0.079-0.079]), ROM increased by +12.65%+12.65\% (95\% CI [+8.43+8.43, +13.89+13.89]), and Reps rose by +2.99+2.99 min1^{-1} (95\% CI [+2.61+2.61, +3.35+3.35]). Median on-device latency was 8.7 ms at a 100 Hz loop rate; all sessions were completed with no device-related adverse events. Conclusions: Multimodal sensing with low-latency, safety-bounded assistance produced improved movement quality (TI \downarrow) and throughput (ROM, Reps \uparrow) in a pilot technical-feasibility setting, supporting progression to IRB-approved patient studies. Trial registration: Not applicable (pilot non-clinical).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.22913,
  title  = {Clinic-Oriented Feasibility of a Sensor-Fused Wearable for Upper-Limb Function},
  author = {Thanyanee Srichaisak and Arissa Ieochai and Aueaphum Aueawattthanaphisut},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.22913},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

19 pages, 7 figures, 5 Tables

R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:06:57.114Z