Method for Wearable Kinematic Gait Analysis Using a Harmonic Oscillator

What is it about?

From a user’s perspective and for the rehabilitation follow-up, it would be very useful to identify a way to perform gait analysis with nonintrusive technologies and to monitor for long time in natural conditions. The 6MWT (six-minute walking test), the TUG (timed up and go), and the 10-meter walking test with normal or maximum self-selected speed are normally used to evaluate subject’s performance. These tests can be easily implemented with a wearable system and also capable to provide quantitative automatic reporting instead of the manual measurement of distance, or time or number of steps that are the only reported data; this aspect is relevant to increase the functional data that such protocols could provide for clinical assessment and also to simplify clinicians and patients in their profession and life. This requires the development of a simple and reliable biomechanical model to have a quick and efficient data interpretation. The corresponding kinematic model is designed to comply with every walking mode (at different speeds, asymmetrical due to pathology, and supported by assistive technologies like stick or walker) due to its simplicity but strong adaptability, thanks to the set of harmonic oscillators that can be implemented.

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Why is it important?

A model based on a harmonic oscillator describing human walking and balance with the sinusoidal trajectory of the center of mass of a subject during gait is presented. This model allows overcoming the traditional drift due to the double integration of raw acceleration data. The protocol uses a single 3D accelerometer worn at the pelvis level. The system computes the spatiotemporal gait and balance parameters when the subject is walking with or without aids. This model is intended not to extract the joint kinematics, but it is limited to compute the standard gait parameters. An incremental methodological approach is proposed and followed in the implementation and accuracy assessment.