Smart Shoe-Assisted Evaluation of Using a Single Trunk/Pocket-Worn Accelerometer to Detect Gait Phases

Sensors

Alessandro Tognetti¹  Gigliola Vaglini¹  Nicola Carbonaro¹  MarioG. C. A. Cimino¹  Marco Avvenuti¹  Guglielmo Cola¹ 

[1] Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, University of Pisa, Largo Lazzarino 1, 56122 Pisa, Italy;

关键词: accelerometer;    foot contact detection;    gait analysis;    gait phase detection;    pocket-worn;    smart shoe;    wearable sensor;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s18113811

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Wearable sensors may enable the continuous monitoring of gait out of the clinic without requiring supervised tests and costly equipment. This paper investigates the use of a single wearable accelerometer to detect foot contact times and estimate temporal gait parameters (stride time, swing and stance duration). The experiments considered two possible body positions for the accelerometer: over the lower trunk and inside a trouser pocket. The latter approach could be implemented using a common smartphone. Notably, during the experiments, the ground truth was obtained by using a pair of sensorized shoes. Unlike ambient sensors and camera-based systems, sensorized shoes enable the evaluation of body-worn sensors even during longer walks. Experiments showed that both trunk and pocket positions achieved promising results in estimating gait parameters, with a mean absolute error below 50 ms.

【 授权许可】

Unknown