Concussion Assessment With Smartglasses: Validation Study of Balance Measurement Toward a Lightweight, Multimodal,...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Wearable Technology
• Neurology

Background:

• Objective concussion assessment is needed, as current methods rely on subjective reporting.
• Head-mounted wearables like smartglasses offer a platform for rapid, objective brain injury screening.
• Standing balance is a key indicator for concussion, but its measurement via smartglasses is unvalidated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate smartglasses-based balance accelerometer measure (BAM) against a gold standard.
• To compare head-mounted BAM with waist-mounted BAM.

Main Methods:

• Forty-two healthy adults performed balance tests with smartglasses and a waist-worn device.
• Accelerometer and gyroscope data were collected from smartglasses (Glass Explorer Edition).
• Test-retest reliability and correlation with waist-based BAM were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Smartglasses balance measurements strongly correlated with waist-mounted device data (Spearman rho=.85).
• High test-retest reliability was observed for smartglasses (ICC=0.85) and agreement with waist-based BAM (ICC=0.84).
• Optimizing data analysis (normalized path length) further improved correlation (rho=.90) and reliability (ICC=0.87).

Conclusions:

• Smartglasses-based accelerometry provides valid and reliable balance measurements comparable to waist-worn devices.
• This technology shows promise for objective, real-time concussion assessment in a wearable platform.
• Further research is warranted to assess smartglasses' ability to detect concussion-related balance deficits.