Wearable hip joint-action detectors

Abstract

An activity detector worn on or in the vicinity of the waist detects hip-joint actions of the user, by using a proximity sensor in the activity detector to sense the separation between the activity detector housing and a body target linked by the hip joint. For example, when the housing of an activity detector adjacent to the lower abdomen incorporates one or more sensing plates of a capacitive proximity sensor, flexion, extension, abduction, or adduction of the hip joint can be detected as the separation between the sensing plates and the lower abdomen changes. Besides the lower abdomen, alternative body targets include the thigh, buttocks, etc. Besides capacitive proximity sensors, alternative proximity sensors include active infrared proximity sensors, imaging sensors, etc. The activity detector can also incorporate an accelerometer to obtain additional movement and orientation data, which can be combined with the separation data to detect more complex activities.