2024/10/31 by Amirhossein Yazdkhasti, Yazdkhasti, Amirhossein, Hendrik De Klerk +9
Engineering · Materials Science · #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Electrical engineering #Gear and Bearing Dynamics Analysis #Signal Processing (eess.SP) #Textile materials and evaluations #Tissues and Organs (q-bio.TO) #Ultrasonics and Acoustic Wave Propagation #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.00184
openalex publication_date 2024/10/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The current methods of assessing tendon health such as clinical examination, imaging techniques, and implanted pressure sensors, are often based on a subjective assessment or are not accurate enough, are extremely expensive, or are limited to relatively large damage such as partial or gross tear of the tendon and cannot accurately assess and monitor smaller damages such as micro tears or strains. This study proposes an acoustic-based wearable capable of estimating tendon load and predicting damage severity in both deep and superficial tendons. Our device consists of an array of acoustic transducers positioned around the targeted body area in the form of a cuff. One of the transducers generates an acoustic wave, which is capable of penetrating deep into the body. As these waves propagate through different tissues, they are influenced by the mechanical and geometrical properties of each tissue. The rest of the transducers are used to measure the propagated waves. The results suggest that the proposed wearable offers a promising alternative to existing superficial tendon monitoring wearable devices by improving the domain of reach. The proposed wearable shows robust performance in estimating the force applied to the tendon. It also can effectively be used to compare the health condition of two tendons and predict the type of damage.