Potential for using Smartphone Accelerometers in Non-laboratory Environments

In recent years, there has been rising interest in using accelerometers as an alternative instrument to measure the center of pressure. Accelerometers are inexpensive, small, sensitive, and can be readily used in non-laboratory environments. In addition to this, smartphones with built-in accelerometers add to their capability with real-time processing of data from sensors. Clinicians and researchers are currently in disagreement from whether these measurements provide the same physiological information about the participant’s balance. In this study, twelve participants were asked to wear smartphone on their right ASIS using a belt clip and stand still on the forceplate. The data was synchronized using a tap by the right foot and collected over a fifty second period for analysis. Various linear and non-linear measures were extracted from the time series of resultant principal component (PC) scores. The results show high correlation in the COP time series from the two instruments (R=0.86).