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Sensory augmentation, a type of biofeedback, is a technique for supplementing or reinforcing native sensory inputs. In the context of balance-related applications, it provides users with additional information about body motion, usually with respect to the gravito-inertial environment. Multiple studies have demonstrated that biofeedback, regardless of the feedback modality (i.e., vibrotactile, electrotactile, auditory), decreases body sway during real-time use within a laboratory setting. However, in their current laboratory-based form, existing vibrotactile biofeedback devices are not appropriate for use in clinical and/or home-based rehabilitation settings due to the expense, size, and operating complexity of the instrumentation required. This dissertation describes the design, development, and preliminary assessment of two technologies that support clinical and home-based balance rehabilitation training. The first system provides vibrotactile-based instructional motion cues to a trainee based on the measured difference between the expert’s and trainee’s motions. The design of the vibrotactile display is supported by a study that characterizes the non-volitional postural responses to vibrotactile stimulation applied to the torso. This study shows that vibration applied individually by tactors over the internal oblique and erector spinae muscles induces a postural shift of the order of one degree oriented in the direction of the stimulation. Furthermore, human performance is characterized both experimentally and theoretically when the expert–trainee error thresholds and nature of the control signal are varied. The results suggest that expert–subject cross-correlation values were maximized and position errors and time delays were minimized when the controller uses a 0.5 error threshold and proportional plus derivative feedback control signal, and that subject performance decreases as motion speed and complexity increase. The second system provides vibrotactile biofeedback about body motion using a cell phone. The system is capable of providing real-time vibrotactile cues that inform corrective trunk tilt responses. When feedback is available, both healthy subjects and those with vestibular involvement significantly reduce their anterior-posterior or medial-lateral root-mean-square body sway, have significantly smaller elliptical area fits to their sway trajectory, spend a significantly greater mean percentage time within the no feedback zone, and show a significantly greater A/P or M/L mean power frequency.

Polymer-based electro-optical modulators are, generally, applicable to many fields but their applications to analog optical links and silicon photonic integrated circuits are specifically emphasized in this dissertation. This dissertation aims to improve the linearity characteristics of polymer-based electro-optic modulators for their practical application in high speed analog optical links. Domain-inversion technique is employed to linearize a two-section Y-fed directional coupler modulator. The spurious free dynamic range as high as 119dB/Hz2/3 has been demonstrated with 11dB enhancement over the conventional Mach-Zehnder modulator at low frequency. For high speed modulation, a traveling wave electrode with low RF loss and large bandwidth is designed and installed in a linearized Y-fed directional coupler modulator. The spurious free dynamic range has been measured in the range of 110±3dB/Hz2/3 at 2~8GHz frequency. For digital application of polymer-based electro-optic modulators, a hybrid silicon photonic crystal waveguide modulator was investigated with focus on size-reduction and electro-optic efficiency enhancement. The slow group velocity of photonic crystal waveguides promises two orders of magnitude size-reduction in device footprint compared with the conventional strip waveguide. Infiltration of an electro-optic polymer into the slot waveguide can infuse silicon with nonlinear optical properties. To actualize these benefits of a hybrid silicon photonic crystal waveguide modulator, nano-fabrication process was developed and optimized in this work.