Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 736418 |
| Journal | Frontiers in digital health |
| Volume | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Nov 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Abstract
Walking is a central activity of daily life, and there is an increasing demand for objective measurement-based gait assessment. In contrast to stationary systems, wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) have the potential to enable non-restrictive and accurate gait assessment in daily life. We propose a set of algorithms that uses the measurements of two foot-worn IMUs to determine major spatiotemporal gait parameters that are essential for clinical gait assessment: durations of five gait phases for each side as well as stride length, walking speed, and cadence. Compared to many existing methods, the proposed algorithms neither require magnetometers nor a precise mounting of the sensor or dedicated calibration movements. They are therefore suitable for unsupervised use by non-experts in indoor as well as outdoor environments. While previously proposed methods are rarely validated in pathological gait, we evaluate the accuracy of the proposed algorithms on a very broad dataset consisting of 215 trials and three different subject groups walking on a treadmill: healthy subjects (n = 39), walking at three different speeds, as well as orthopedic (n = 62) and neurological (n = 36) patients, walking at a self-selected speed. The results show a very strong correlation of all gait parameters (Pearson's r between 0.83 and 0.99, p < 0.01) between the IMU system and the reference system. The mean absolute difference (MAD) is 1.4 % for the gait phase durations, 1.7 cm for the stride length, 0.04 km/h for the walking speed, and 0.7 steps/min for the cadence. We show that the proposed methods achieve high accuracy not only for a large range of walking speeds but also in pathological gait as it occurs in orthopedic and neurological diseases. In contrast to all previous research, we present calibration-free methods for the estimation of gait phases and spatiotemporal parameters and validate them in a large number of patients with different pathologies. The proposed methods lay the foundation for ubiquitous unsupervised gait assessment in daily-life environments.
Keywords
- gait analysis, gait assessment, gait phases, human motion analysis, IMU, inertial sensors, rehabilitation, walking
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine(all)
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Engineering(all)
- Biomedical Engineering
- Medicine(all)
- Health Informatics
- Computer Science(all)
- Computer Science Applications
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Frontiers in digital health, Vol. 3, 736418, 04.11.2021.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Calibration-Free Gait Assessment by Foot-Worn Inertial Sensors
AU - Laidig, Daniel
AU - Jocham, Andreas J.
AU - Guggenberger, Bernhard
AU - Adamer, Klemens
AU - Fischer, Martin
AU - Seel, Thomas
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Copyright © 2021 Laidig, Jocham, Guggenberger, Adamer, Fischer and Seel.
PY - 2021/11/4
Y1 - 2021/11/4
N2 - Walking is a central activity of daily life, and there is an increasing demand for objective measurement-based gait assessment. In contrast to stationary systems, wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) have the potential to enable non-restrictive and accurate gait assessment in daily life. We propose a set of algorithms that uses the measurements of two foot-worn IMUs to determine major spatiotemporal gait parameters that are essential for clinical gait assessment: durations of five gait phases for each side as well as stride length, walking speed, and cadence. Compared to many existing methods, the proposed algorithms neither require magnetometers nor a precise mounting of the sensor or dedicated calibration movements. They are therefore suitable for unsupervised use by non-experts in indoor as well as outdoor environments. While previously proposed methods are rarely validated in pathological gait, we evaluate the accuracy of the proposed algorithms on a very broad dataset consisting of 215 trials and three different subject groups walking on a treadmill: healthy subjects (n = 39), walking at three different speeds, as well as orthopedic (n = 62) and neurological (n = 36) patients, walking at a self-selected speed. The results show a very strong correlation of all gait parameters (Pearson's r between 0.83 and 0.99, p < 0.01) between the IMU system and the reference system. The mean absolute difference (MAD) is 1.4 % for the gait phase durations, 1.7 cm for the stride length, 0.04 km/h for the walking speed, and 0.7 steps/min for the cadence. We show that the proposed methods achieve high accuracy not only for a large range of walking speeds but also in pathological gait as it occurs in orthopedic and neurological diseases. In contrast to all previous research, we present calibration-free methods for the estimation of gait phases and spatiotemporal parameters and validate them in a large number of patients with different pathologies. The proposed methods lay the foundation for ubiquitous unsupervised gait assessment in daily-life environments.
AB - Walking is a central activity of daily life, and there is an increasing demand for objective measurement-based gait assessment. In contrast to stationary systems, wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) have the potential to enable non-restrictive and accurate gait assessment in daily life. We propose a set of algorithms that uses the measurements of two foot-worn IMUs to determine major spatiotemporal gait parameters that are essential for clinical gait assessment: durations of five gait phases for each side as well as stride length, walking speed, and cadence. Compared to many existing methods, the proposed algorithms neither require magnetometers nor a precise mounting of the sensor or dedicated calibration movements. They are therefore suitable for unsupervised use by non-experts in indoor as well as outdoor environments. While previously proposed methods are rarely validated in pathological gait, we evaluate the accuracy of the proposed algorithms on a very broad dataset consisting of 215 trials and three different subject groups walking on a treadmill: healthy subjects (n = 39), walking at three different speeds, as well as orthopedic (n = 62) and neurological (n = 36) patients, walking at a self-selected speed. The results show a very strong correlation of all gait parameters (Pearson's r between 0.83 and 0.99, p < 0.01) between the IMU system and the reference system. The mean absolute difference (MAD) is 1.4 % for the gait phase durations, 1.7 cm for the stride length, 0.04 km/h for the walking speed, and 0.7 steps/min for the cadence. We show that the proposed methods achieve high accuracy not only for a large range of walking speeds but also in pathological gait as it occurs in orthopedic and neurological diseases. In contrast to all previous research, we present calibration-free methods for the estimation of gait phases and spatiotemporal parameters and validate them in a large number of patients with different pathologies. The proposed methods lay the foundation for ubiquitous unsupervised gait assessment in daily-life environments.
KW - gait analysis
KW - gait assessment
KW - gait phases
KW - human motion analysis
KW - IMU
KW - inertial sensors
KW - rehabilitation
KW - walking
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124719016&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fdgth.2021.736418
DO - 10.3389/fdgth.2021.736418
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85124719016
VL - 3
JO - Frontiers in digital health
JF - Frontiers in digital health
SN - 2673-253X
M1 - 736418
ER -