Apparatus for clinically documenting postural vices and quantifying loads on body segments in static and dynamic conditions

• US 4,598,717 A
• Filed: 06/04/1984
• Issued: 07/08/1986
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/1983
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fondazione Pro Juventute Don Carlo Gnocchi
• Original Assignee: Fondazione Pro Juventute Don Carlo Gnocchi
• Inventors: Pedotti, Antonio
• Primary Examiner(s): Coven, Edward M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hindenburg, Max F.
• Application Number:
  US06/616,876
• Time in Patent Office: 764 Days
• Field of Search: 128/774, 128/779, 128/781, 128/782
• US Class Current: 600/592
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1036 Measuring load distribution, e.g. podologic studies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/005 Input arrangements through a video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04142 the force sensing means being located peripherally, e.g. disposed at the corners or at the side of a touch sensing plate

Abstract

The apparatus comprises a platform for supporting a patient to be examined and providing at least one component of the force exerted thereon by the patient, a TV camera so positioned as to pick up the image of the patient on the platform and cooperating with a monitor for displaying the picked up image in the form of a vectorial representation under the control of image processing circuitry and of a processor unit.

Claims

1. An apparatus for clinically documenting postural vices, comprising in combination:

a platform;

a plurality of transducers arranged in proximity of said platform and measuring three mutually perpendicular components of the force exerted thereon by a subject to be examined carried on said platform, said transducers generating each an electric signal proportional to the vertical component of said force and two electric signals proportional to the resultants of the horizontal and vertical components, respectively, of said force;

clock generator means;

analog-to-digital converter means circuit-wise connected to said transducers and to said clock generator means so as to receive from said transducers said electric signals periodically at sampling times;

TV camera means arranged in proximity to said platform and circuit-wise connected to said clock generator means so as to pick up the image of said subject on said platform synchronously with said electric signals;

a processor unit circuit-wise connected to the output of said analog-to-digital converter means, said processor unit generating vectors representative of the resultants of the forces exerted by the subject on said platform calculating the application points of said vectors and driving analog and digital circuitry for directly representing said vectors;

adder means circuit-wise connected to said TV camera means and said analog and digital circuitry for adding together said vectors and said picked up image; and

monitor means circuit-wise connected to said adder means and said clock generator means for selectively displaying said vectors as overlapping the picked up image and said application points.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said analog-to-digital converter means have six input lines.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said TV camera means includes a single TV camera for successively surveying three mutually perpendicular planes.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said TV camera means comprises three TV camera for simultaneously surveying three mutually perpendicular planes.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said processor unit comprises analog and digital circuits carrying out calibration of the scales for the forces and spatial dimensions.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising videorecording still camera means providing photographies or records of images displayed on said monitor means.