Accurate assessment of balance is critical for fall prevention and targeted rehabilitation, particularly in older adults and individuals with neurological disorders. However, widely used clinical tools such as the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) are limited by subjectivity, reliance on controlled environments, and poor scalability, making them unsuitable for continuous or real‐world monitoring. In this study, a compact, wireless, and wearable system comprising three miniaturized inertial measurement units (IMUs) capable of assessing gait and balance with high reliability and simplicity are proposed. The system enables real‐time, synchronized acquisition of six‐axis motion data via wireless communication and timestamp‐based alignment. From these data, 10 clinically relevant gait features, including stride length, gait speed, rhythm, and double‐support duration, are extracted. The proposed system demonstrates high fidelity compared to a gold‐standard optical motion capture system (<6.6% deviation) and excellent repeatability across trials (<3% standard deviation), confirming its robustness for motion tracking. Based on these validated features, machine learning models are developed to predict BBS scores. Among them, the Random Forest algorithm achieves the highest predictive accuracy (R 2 = 0.804), with bootstrap analysis (95% CI: 0.53–0.81) supporting its statistical reliability. This work presents a scalable, low‐cost, and high‐fidelity alternative to conventional motion capture technologies, offering strong potential for clinical and remote balance assessments.

Accurate assessment of balance is critical for fall prevention and targeted rehabilitation, particularly in older adults and individuals with neurological disorders. However, widely used clinical tools such as the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) are limited by subjectivity, reliance on controlled environments, and poor scalability, making them unsuitable for continuous or real‐world monitoring. In this study, a compact, wireless, and wearable system comprising three miniaturized inertial measurement units (IMUs) capable of assessing gait and balance with high reliability and simplicity are proposed. The system enables real‐time, synchronized acquisition of six‐axis motion data via wireless communication and timestamp‐based alignment. From these data, 10 clinically relevant gait features, including stride length, gait speed, rhythm, and double‐support duration, are extracted. The proposed system demonstrates high fidelity compared to a gold‐standard optical motion capture system (<6.6% deviation) and excellent repeatability across trials (<3% standard deviation), confirming its robustness for motion tracking. Based on these validated features, machine learning models are developed to predict BBS scores. Among them, the Random Forest algorithm achieves the highest predictive accuracy (R 2 = 0.804), with bootstrap analysis (95% CI: 0.53–0.81) supporting its statistical reliability. This work presents a scalable, low‐cost, and high‐fidelity alternative to conventional motion capture technologies, offering strong potential for clinical and remote balance assessments.

Swallowing is a complex neuromuscular activity regulated by the autonomic nervous system. Millions of adults suffer from dysphagia (impaired or difficulty swallowing), including patients with neurological disorders, head and neck cancer, gastrointestinal diseases, and respiratory disorders. Therapeutic treatments for dysphagia include interventions by speech-language pathologists designed to improve the physiology of the swallowing mechanism by training patients to initiate swallows with sufficient frequency and during the expiratory phase of the breathing cycle. These therapeutic treatments require bulky, expensive equipment to synchronously record swallows and respirations, confined to use in clinical settings. This paper introduces a wireless, wearable technology that enables continuous, mechanoacoustic tracking of respiratory activities and swallows through movements and vibratory processes monitored at the skin surface. Validation studies in healthy adults (n = 67) and patients with dysphagia (n = 4) establish measurement equivalency to existing clinical standard equipment. Additional studies using a differential mode of operation reveal similar performance even during routine daily activities and vigorous exercise. A graphical user interface with real-time data analytics and a separate, optional wireless module support both visual and haptic forms of feedback to facilitate the treatment of patients with dysphagia.

Swallowing is a complex neuromuscular activity regulated by the autonomic central nervous system, and impairment can lead to dysphagia, which is difficulty in swallowing. This research presents a novel approach that utilizes wireless, wearable technology for the continuous mechano-acoustic tracking of respiratory activities and swallowing. To address the challenge of accurately tracking swallowing amidst potential confounding activities or significant body movements, we employ two accelerometers. These accelerometers help distinguish between genuine swallowing events and other activities. By monitoring movements and vibrations through the skin surface, the developed device enables non-intrusive monitoring of swallowing dynamics and respiratory patterns. Our focus is on the development of both the wireless skin-interfaced device and an advanced algorithm capable of detecting swallowing dynamics in conjunction with respiratory phases. The device and algorithm demonstrate robustness in detecting respiratory patterns and swallowing instances, even in scenarios where users exhibit periodic movements due to disease or daily activities. Furthermore, peak detection using an adaptive threshold automatically adjusts to an individual’s signal strength, facilitating the detection of swallowing signals without the need for individual adjustments. This innovation has significant potential for enhancing patient training and rehabilitation programs aimed at addressing dysphagia and related respiratory issues.

<i>Waves are a complex phenomenon in marine and coastal areas, and accurate wave prediction is essential for the safety and resource management of ships at sea. In this study, three types of machine learning techniques specialized in nonlinear data processing were used to predict the waves of Korea waters. An optimized algorithm for each area is presented for performance evaluation and comparison. The optimal parameters were determined by varying the window size, and the performance was evaluated by comparing the mean absolute error (MAE). All the models showed good results when the window size was 4 or 7 d, with the gated recurrent unit (GRU) performing well in all waters. The MAE results were within 0.161 m to 0.051 m for significant wave heights and 0.491 s to 0.272 s for periods. In addition, the GRU showed higher prediction accuracy for certain data with waves greater than 3 m or 8 s, which is likely due to the number of training parameters. When conducting marine and offshore research at new locations, the results presented in this study can help ensure safety and improve work efficiency. If additional wave-related data are obtained, more accurate wave predictions will be possible.</i>

ADAM, with our algorithm, may serve as a rehabilitation tool for neck motion monitoring in postoperative ACDF patients. Sensor-captured vital signs and other events (extubation, vocalization, physical therapy, walking) are potential metrics to be incorporated into our algorithm to offer more holistic monitoring of patients after cervical spine surgery.

Capabilities in continuous monitoring of key physiological parameters of disease have never been more important than in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Soft, skin-mounted electronics that incorporate high-bandwidth, miniaturized motion sensors enable digital, wireless measurements of mechanoacoustic (MA) signatures of both core vital signs (heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature) and underexplored biomarkers (coughing count) with high fidelity and immunity to ambient noises. This paper summarizes an effort that integrates such MA sensors with a cloud data infrastructure and a set of analytics approaches based on digital filtering and convolutional neural networks for monitoring of COVID-19 infections in sick and healthy individuals in the hospital and the home. Unique features are in quantitative measurements of coughing and other vocal events, as indicators of both disease and infectiousness. Systematic imaging studies demonstrate correlations between the time and intensity of coughing, speaking, and laughing and the total droplet production, as an approximate indicator of the probability for disease spread. The sensors, deployed on COVID-19 patients along with healthy controls in both inpatient and home settings, record coughing frequency and intensity continuously, along with a collection of other biometrics. The results indicate a decaying trend of coughing frequency and intensity through the course of disease recovery, but with wide variations across patient populations. The methodology creates opportunities to study patterns in biometrics across individuals and among different demographic groups.

Itch is a common clinical symptom and major driver of disease-related morbidity across a wide range of medical conditions. A substantial unmet need is for objective, accurate measurements of itch. In this article, we present a noninvasive technology to objectively quantify scratching behavior via a soft, flexible, and wireless sensor that captures the acousto-mechanic signatures of scratching from the dorsum of the hand. A machine learning algorithm validated on data collected from healthy subjects (<i>n</i> = 10) indicates excellent performance relative to smartwatch-based approaches. Clinical validation in a cohort of predominately pediatric patients (<i>n</i> = 11) with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis included 46 sleep-nights totaling 378.4 hours. The data indicate an accuracy of 99.0% (84.3% sensitivity, 99.3% specificity) against visual observation. This work suggests broad capabilities relevant to applications ranging from assessing the efficacy of drugs for conditions that cause itch to monitoring disease severity and treatment response.

Early identification of atypical infant movement behaviors consistent with underlying neuromotor pathologies can expedite timely enrollment in therapeutic interventions that exploit inherent neuroplasticity to promote recovery. Traditional neuromotor assessments rely on qualitative evaluations performed by specially trained personnel, mostly available in tertiary medical centers or specialized facilities. Such approaches are high in cost, require geographic proximity to advanced healthcare resources, and yield mostly qualitative insight. This paper introduces a simple, low-cost alternative in the form of a technology customized for quantitatively capturing continuous, full-body kinematics of infants during free living conditions at home or in clinical settings while simultaneously recording essential vital signs data. The system consists of a wireless network of small, flexible inertial sensors placed at strategic locations across the body and operated in a wide-bandwidth and time-synchronized fashion. The data serve as the basis for reconstructing three-dimensional motions in avatar form without the need for video recordings and associated privacy concerns, for remote visual assessments by experts. These quantitative measurements can also be presented in graphical format and analyzed with machine-learning techniques, with potential to automate and systematize traditional motor assessments. Clinical implementations with infants at low and at elevated risks for atypical neuromotor development illustrates application of this system in quantitative and semiquantitative assessments of patterns of gross motor skills, along with body temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate, from long-term and follow-up measurements over a 3-mo period following birth. The engineering aspects are compatible for scaled deployment, with the potential to improve health outcomes for children worldwide via early, pragmatic detection methods.