Age-related losses in vestibular functions diminish the capacity of a person to maintain posture and increase the likelihood of falling. The vestibular system and the auditory system work together to process sounds into positional cues to maintain posture. These cues then allow the vestibular system to automatically recalibrate and stabilize a person by correcting their posture accordingly.
Inventors at USF have created a wearable device for vestibular diagnosis and treatment using supplemental, Earth-referenced, audible sounds (i.e., loudspeakers fixed in space). This invention sends these sounds and real-time monitoring of a person’s positional coordinates to a corresponding algorithm that in turn adjusts the sounds to maintain balance and postural stability. Actively treating the underlying problem provides patients with more independence and a reduced fall risk, improving on current methods that focus on patients learning to live with their balance challenges instead.
Image of a vestibular diagnosis system integrated with a dynamic force plate.