The project GeriaBall is focused on the development of an intuitive grip strength measurement device, so called Hand Dynamometer. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research inside the consortium 3Dsensation, GeriaBall aims at the early detection of advancing amyosthenia. A declining manual force can lead to a increased risk of falling. Therefore, especially elderly people can clearly benefit from targeted training methods to improve their grip strength.
Overall, the project activities concentrate on the research of the basic principles and possible technologies to sketch out a system design and consequently build a prototype for home usage. The final technical solution will be able to measure the user's grip strength via a sensor network inside a ball, which in turn will transfer the measurement results to a connected IT device (e.g. smartphone) or system (e.g. electronic health record).