Professor Leng Cheng awarded two "land-attached" research awards for minibus physical examination gait meter to measure elderly's fall risk

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Written by: Deng Yinglin

2019-12-19 00:01

Zhang Dajian, a 73-year-old guest professor of the Department of Physics of the Baptist University, has spent decades of his research career focusing on areas that ordinary people will not contact, such as ocean energy, magnet power generation, etc., so he hopes to design simple, His invention contributes to the society. For example, when he rides a minibus, he "puts the pulse" on the minibus, estimates the performance of the vehicle based on the vibration of the minibus, so that the vehicle can be repaired early. A "portable gait analyzer" that looks like a belt, users can learn their fall risk within five minutes with a simple exercise.

After winning the prize at the Geneva International Invention Exhibition two years ago, the "portable gait analyzer" has continued to improve and has been used by nearly 1,000 elders for trial. This month, it won the gold award in the local invention competition "Asian Invention Exhibition-Hong Kong". And the highest honor award, and the minibus research also won a silver award in the same event. The team hopes that the invention will sell the "portable gait analyzer" to non-profit organizations and government organizations in Hong Kong in 2020, so that more elderly people can benefit.

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Fall-prevention analyzer scales down to belt appearance

Hong Kong's population is aging, and elderly people have fallen from their injuries and even died. Data from the Department of Health show that every five elderly people living in a community aged 65 or over fall every year, and 75% of them are injured, including head trauma and fractures. Zhang Dajian, a 73-year-old visiting professor in the Department of Physics of HKBU, noted that one in five elderly people in Hong Kong has fallen, and one in three elderly people in the United States has died because of a fall. He pointed out that considering the "three highs" (Ie high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar). There are data to measure, but the risk of falling is not. During his decades of research career, his work has nothing to do with daily life. "For seven years, I was studying the waves Therefore, when I returned to Hong Kong in 2011, I hope to develop simple and helpful inventions.

He and his team worked hard to invent a "portable gait analyzer" to help identify foot problems or balance and reduce the risk of falls for the elderly. The invention won many awards at the 45th Geneva International Invention Exhibition in 2017. Two years later, the team reduced the size of the sunglasses case to a cloth belt, reducing the weight from about 200 grams to about 32 grams. The user only needs to tie the instrument to his waist and stand, walk and repeat standing up. The micro acceleration sensor will record the user's movement data such as stride, left and right foot landing time under static and gait conditions, so that The user's walking performance, lower limb strength, visual and physical coordination ability are obtained.

The "portable gait analyzer" invented by visiting professor Zhang Dajian and his team at the HKBU Department of Physics won the gold and highest honor in the local invention competition "Asian Invention Exhibition-Hong Kong". (Photo by Deng Yinglin)

The calculation method has also been processed by humans in the past and changed to cloud computing and data analysis. The evaluation report can be viewed in a mobile application within five minutes, which is much faster than the past one hour. The report uses three levels of red, yellow, and green to show the risk of falling. The red is the highest risk. The report can also reflect the user's vision, brain signal transmission, lower limb strength, and gait coordination. The study has been tried out by more than 1,000 people in Hong Kong, including the Housing Society's Elderly Living Resource Centre and the private sector.

Zhang Dajian pointed out that the accuracy rate is similar to traditional detection methods, and it is more convenient and faster to walk on special carpets than traditional methods. It is easier to identify the risk of early falls than to observe with naked eyes, improve the alertness of users and family members, and facilitate early treatment or correction. The data compare the effect before and after treatment. In addition to the invention in Hong Kong, it will also be tested in the United States and Taiwan, including academic cooperation with Taipei Rongmin General Hospital to apply the invention to identify patients with long and short feet.

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In the "Second Asian Invention Exhibition-Hong Kong", Zhang Dajian also won a silver award for another research on "diagnosis of internal combustion engine performance". Zhang Dajian pointed out that in 2011, he returned from the United States to visit relatives and took a minibus, and found that the vibration of the minibus could reflect the performance of the car. Therefore, he collected data to "put the pulse" on the minibus, reminding the owner to repair the vehicle early to avoid driving safety.

He recalled that when he returned to Hong Kong to accompany his father, he was a guest professor and was in a state of "Four Nones": "I have no laboratory, no research topics, no students, no funding", but I also want to do research. Inspired by the rotation, he observed and recorded the vibration of the minibus while riding the minibus, and researched the relationship between the vibration of the vehicle and the performance loss: "Sitting many times, taking a lot of minibuses, sitting in the same seat every time, passed In the past six months, I had a lot of data. One day I told the driver that the car was about to break down, and I really wanted to repair it in a week. "He smiled and said that after he had" put the pulse "on the minibus, he also measured it on large buses to understand the vibration. The relationship between frequency, form, and vehicle performance was suspended.

Living to be old and still learning to learn, he revealed that it was related to his father's education methods. (Interested readers, see another report.)

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