mBalance: Detect Postural Imbalance with Mobile Devices

Abstract

Background: Postural imbalance can be adopted for the early detection of age-related diseases or monitoring the course of the disease treatment; especially in monitoring, frequent balance measurement is crucial. This is mainly done through regular in-person examinations by a physician currently. Feedback in between examinations is often missing. Objectives: This paper proposes mBalance, a mobile application that uses the Romberg test to detect postural imbalance. mBalance provides a camera-based, low-cost approach to measure imbalance frequently at home using mobile devices. Methods: Imbalance detection accuracy and usability was evaluated in two separate studies with 31 and 30 participants, respectively. Results: mBalance correctly detected imbalance with a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 87%. The study found good usability with no significant problems. Conclusion: Overall, this study solves the problem of postural imbalance detection by digitizing a validated balance test into an easy-to-use mobile application.