Towards IoT-based ehealth services: A smart prototype system for home rehabilitation

In the latest years we have been witnessing an evolution of the technological framework thanks to the Internet of Things paradigm, which is enabling innovative smart services for many different applications. The healthcare system is among the main scenarios that are benefiting from this new trend, thus giving rise to the concept of eHealth. In this framework we propose SmartPANTS, an IoT-based wireless system specifically designed for the rehabilitation of lower limbs. Our system is conceived as a prototype of a medical platform to be employed during the physical therapy for patients recovering from a brain stroke condition. SmartPANTS includes a signal processing and machine learning algorithm able to automatically recognize the type of exercise the patient is performing, and to provide real-time feedback on the execution. Moreover, experimental tests show that our platform is able to estimate the execution time of the different exercises, providing values very close to real ones. Performance results show that the SmartPANTS system is able to correctly identify the type of exercise currently being performed with an accuracy of about 99%.