Optical fiber sensors for posture monitoring, ulcer detection and control in a wheelchair: a state-of-the-art

Background In the last ten years, the design and implementation of Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) in biomedical applications have been discussed, with a focus on different subareas, such as body parameter monitoring and control of assistive devices.Materials and methods A scoping review was performed including scientific literature (PubMed/Scopus, IEEE and Web of Science), patents (WIPO/Google Scholar), and commercial information.Results The main applications of OFS in the rehabilitation field for preventing future postural diseases and applying them in device controllers were discussed in this review. Physical characteristics of OFS, different uses, and applications of Polymer Optical Fiber pressure sensors are mentioned. The main postures used for posture monitoring analysis when the user is sitting are normal position, crooked back, high lumbar pressure, sitting on the edge of the chair, and crooked back, left position, and right position. Additionally, it is possible to use Machine Learning (ML) algorithms for posture classification, and device control such as Support Vector Machine, k-Nearest Neighbors, etc., obtaining accuracies above 97%. Moreover, the literature mentions wheelchair controllers and Graphical User Interfaces using pressure maps to provide feedback to the user.Conclusions OFS have been used in several healthcare applications as well as postural and preventive applications. The literature showed an effort to implement and design accessible devices for people with disabilities and people with specific diseases. Alternatively, ML algorithms are widely used in this direction, leaving the door open for further studies that allow the application of real-time systems for posture monitoring and wheelchairs control.