A Novel Acoustic Wearable for Assessment of Tendon Health and Loading Condition

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.