{"id":425924,"date":"2022-12-23T09:31:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T08:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=425924"},"modified":"2022-12-23T09:31:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T08:31:34","slug":"smart-jumpsuit-tracks-babies-motor-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/smart-jumpsuit-tracks-babies-motor-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart jumpsuit tracks babies\u2019 motor development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cAt a doctor\u2019s appointment, children are often a bit frightened. They connect those settings with bad memories of acute illness or something that could be threatening to them,\u201d says Leena Haataja. She\u2019s a professor of child neurology at the University of Helsinki<\/a>, Finland, with over 30 years of experience with disabled children. Yet, analyzing developmental abilities in the first year of life is fundamental. Even more so if there is any concern about the baby\u2019s wellbeing, as there’s still room for intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why we write about this topic:<\/summary>

Healthcare is increasingly moving outside of hospitals. Among the many technologies to monitor patients from a distance, there is also this smart jumpsuit to check on babies.<\/p><\/div><\/details>\n\n\n\n

Haataja is part of a cohort of multidisciplinary researchers from the Finnish university who developed MAIJU \u2013 Motor Assessment of Infants with a Jumpsuit. The wearable can assess the neurological evolution of babies from when they start moving around until they reach fluent walking, usually before two years of age. Recording activity with the smart jumpsuit aims at giving more insights, detecting potential neurodevelopmental problems, and planning therapeutic interventions accordingly. What\u2019s more, it can be used at home, in babies\u2019 comfort zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists gathered data by tracking infants during spontaneous playtime, to train an algorithm able to recognize postures and movements. MAIJU is now available to other researchers for further use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When babies start to move<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At five months of age, babies begin to move around. They might not be able to crawl yet, but they start to push and drag themselves when playing. One year later, they start to build their vocabulary and show a preference for using one hand over the other. This span of time is crucial in a baby’s growth process<\/a> as the first signals of impairment can be detected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIntervening as early as possible is fundamental if development is not following the typical path. The brain in those months is particularly plastic and the earlier the intervention happens, the better the functional outcome,\u201d underlines Haataja.<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/div><\/div>
New device helps care for seriously ill babies<\/div>
If a baby is in distress after birth, for instance, because it was born much too early or is severely oxygen deprived, the medical team the medical team must act quickly to save its life. <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Classifying movement with the smart jumpsuit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

MAIJU was developed within the BABA<\/a> \u2013 BAby Brain Activity \u2013 Center of Children\u2019s Hospital of Helsinki. It features sensors tracking movement, comparable to ones used in modern smartwatches \u2013 the so-called accelerometers and gyroscopes. The sleeves and legs of the smart jumpsuit have pockets for the sensing units. These are big enough not to be swallowed by the babies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every limb has a sensor, and each one of them streams data to a nearby mobile phone. The recordings are later uploaded to a cloud, where it\u2019s up to artificial intelligence to analyze data. Managing this stream of data was one of the main technical challenges, according to Manu Airaksinen, a Ph.D. researcher in artificial intelligence at the University of Helsinki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile observing adults, it\u2019s easy to come up with categories for defining their movement \u2013 even when spontaneous. Conversely, infants change their behavior continuously. Every minute, we get about 1200 measurements, and creating a precise classification scheme was harder. Two parameters help us classify an action: posture and quality of the movement,\u201d Airaksinen underlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spontaneous activities to get realistic insights <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The procedure for recording data is simple. First, researchers set up and connect the suit to a phone in the lab. Then, as it arrives at the baby\u2019s home, one of the parents dresses the infant, encouraging the baby to play spontaneously for at least an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the problems in studying a child\u2019s motor development was the lack of a system for assessing it quantitatively. Besides, Finnish researchers wanted to take examinations outside of the hospitals. Activities like spontaneous playtime at home can reveal a lot about a toddler\u2019s development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you want to understand how motor development is proceeding, you need to bring the analysis inside the infant\u2019s daily activities,\u201d underlines Sampsa Vanhatalo. He\u2019s a professor of Physiology and BABA center\u2019s director. \u201cIn those settings, they behave freely and express themselves,\u201d Haataja adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"smart<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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From left to right: Sampsa Vanhatalo, Leena Haataja, and Manu Airaksinen. – \u00a9 University of Helsinki and BABA Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Children don\u2019t mind\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So far, the device has been welcomed positively by hospitals around the world. Some criticisms concern the impact of Bluetooth radiation. Vanhatalo defines it as \u201clower than the ones emitted by smartphones\u201d. Another remark received by the researchers regards the suit’s synthetic fabric. \u201cIt allows being flexible enough while keeping a good fitting on different infants. Parents can be picky about these details, without recognizing that the baby would wear the suit for a few hours only,\u201d says Vanhatalo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the final users don\u2019t seem to care too much about these details. \u201cChildren don\u2019t mind,\u201d stresses Haataja. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if they are using it in Finland, Italy, or Malawi. Despite all the concerns other researchers or parents may have shown before testing it, the reaction is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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