Clustering-based limb identification for pressure ulcer risk assessment

Bedridden patients have a high risk of developing pressure ulcers. Risk assessment for pressure ulceration is critical for preventive care. For a reliable assessment, we need to identify and track the limbs continuously and accurately. In this paper, we propose a method to identify body limbs using a pressure mat. Three prevalent sleep postures (supine, left and right postures) are considered. Then, predefined number of limbs (body parts) are identified by applying Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering on key attributes. We collected data from 10 adult subjects and achieved average accuracy of 93.2% for 10 limbs in supine and 7 limbs in left/right postures.