Arm Movement Measure (ArMM)
To recover from brain damage, it is vital to understand the effects of brain damage on motor control – the ability of the brain to plan, execute, monitor and adapt movement.
ArMMTM (Arm Movement Measure) is a innovative new portable medical device that communicates information about motor control to therapists, patients and researchers testing novel treatment interventions.
It uses original software to integrate highly accurate information from:
- a triaxial arm motion sensor integrated into an ultra-light smartphone strapped to the wrist; and
- electromagnetic finger and thumb sensors, attached to the smartphone via electrical wires.
There is currently no way to measure motor control in the clinical or community setting. Until the advent of ArMMTM, motor control had to be measured in expensive laboratory settings with systems costing around $60,000.
By being portable and inexpensive at $600, ArMMTM is highly accessible and will benefit a huge range of brain damaged people, from adults with stroke, young people with brain injury to children with cerebral palsy, who all need to recover arm function to enable them to do everyday tasks like drinking and going to the toilet independently.
Therefore ArMMTM solves two pressing problems:
- It allows therapists to measure motor control during treatment and feed this information back to patients so they can improve, and
- It allows portable measures of motor control to be made in community based stroke research trials.
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.