Accurate monitoring of human physical activity levels for medical diagnosis and monitoring using off-the-shelf cellular handsets

Numerous laboratory-based studies have been reported on the use of accelerometry for gait and activity analysis particularly among cohorts of elderly subjects. A drawback of such studies is the use of custom hardware platforms worn by subjects. This paper introduces a system solely utilizing accelerometers embedded in off-the-shelf cellular handsets that allow medical professionals and caregivers to remotely monitor the activity characteristics of elderly patients in the home or in the community. The use of ubiquitous cellular handsets makes the system far more acceptable to patients and enables the use of the system to be extended beyond healthcare facilities into the home environment. Mobile handset power consumption issues and other relevant handset and mobile handset application characteristics have been investigated in the context of the deployment of the proposed system.