Optical fibres-based magic carpet can help prevent falls

06 Sep '12

4 min read

Professor Krikor Ozanyan from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering added: “We pioneered this new kind of tomography here at The University of Manchester in 2005. Now we are delighted to show how achievements in maths, science and engineering can bring together this exciting new application in healthcare.”

Dr Christine Brown Wilson from the School of Nursing Midwifery and Social Work said: “This project demonstrates how engineers, scientists and healthcare professionals, can work together to develop new and innovative health care technologies that make a real difference in practice.

Professor Chris Todd said: "Falls are a really important problem for our ageing society. More than a third of older people fall each year, and in nursing and residential homes it is much more common than that.

“Older people will benefit from exercises to improve balance and muscle strength in the legs. So being able to identify changes in people's walking patterns and gait in the natural environment, such as in a corridor in a nursing home, could really help us identity problems earlier on.

“This is really exciting work at the forefront of research using technologies to prevent falls and represents an unique collaboration between scientists from different backgrounds working together to identity a smart solution to an important problem for our country and indeed all over the world."

University of Manchester

More University of Manchester News... More Textiles News - United Kingdom...