DBAPS

What it does

DBAPS is a digital rehab tool that guides ankle exercises with real-time feedback and tracks progress. It enhances accuracy and makes therapy more effective and engaging for both patients and therapists.

Your inspiration

We were inspired to create DBAPS after talking to physical therapists who use the traditional BAPS board. They shared that while it helps with ankle rehab, it lacks feedback—there’s no way to track progress or tell if a movement is done correctly. That’s when we realized the value of adding electronics and data tracking to support therapy. As electronics engineering students, we saw a chance to upgrade a trusted tool. With a digital version, we could give real-time feedback, log performance data, and personalize rehab, making therapy more engaging for patients and more precise for therapists.

How it works

DBAPS is a smart rehab board that helps people with ankle injuries do guided exercises. It detects how the foot moves and gives feedback using lights, vibration, and sound. You can use it on its own or connect it to a computer to see detailed results. It also has different difficulty levels and tracks your progress over time, so you can see how much you’re improving.

Design process

Our design process started by identifying the key needs of our client, a licensed physical therapist working in rehabilitation. They emphasized that the device must measure ankle motion with at least 90% accuracy, support both PC-connected and standalone use, and provide real-time feedback to improve therapy sessions. We also considered broader design requirements such as portability, durability (minimum 3-year lifespan), low power consumption, user-friendliness, and affordability (below ₱80,000). In addition, the system needed to align with public health, safety, ethical, and sustainability standards. With these criteria in mind, we developed three design options and evaluated them through simulation, testing, and review. Each design was assessed based on how well it met the client's defined requirements. After thorough comparison, we selected the version that offered the best balance of accuracy, reliability, and usability. This final design became the foundation of DBAPS and represents our solution to modernizing ankle rehabilitation with accessible and effective technology.

How it is different

What makes DBAPS unique is that it brings real-time feedback and data tracking to a device that’s usually manual. It doesn’t just rely on visual observation—it gives clear, measurable results. Plus, our design can work independently or with a computer, making it more flexible for different users and rehab settings. It's also designed to be cost-effective and portable, which isn't common in many digital rehab tools.

Future plans

We’ve already implemented a basic cloud-based system, but we plan to improve it with more advanced analytics, better data storage, and secure therapist access. We're also looking at redesigning the device to make it more compact, durable, and wireless. Eventually, we want to launch a mobile app to make DBAPS even more accessible and user-friendly for both clinics and home-based users.

Awards