A Markerless-based Gait Analysis and Visualization Approach for ASD Children

Nur Khalidah Zakaria,Nooritawati Md Tahir,Rozita Jailani

doi:10.14569/ijacsa.2021.0120553

Nur Khalidah Zakaria, Nooritawati Md Tahir + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14569/ijacsa.2021.0120553

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Abstract

This study proposed a new method in gait acquisition and analysis for autistic children based on the markerless technique versus the gold standard marker-based technique. Here, the gait acquisition stage is conducted using a depth camera with a customizable skeleton tracking function that is the Microsoft Kinect sensor for recording the walking gait trials of the 23 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 30 typically healthy developing (TD) children. Next, the Kinect depth sensor outputs information is translated into kinematic gait features. Further, analysis and evaluation are done specifically the kinematic angles of the hip, knee, and ankle in analyzing and visualizing the pattern of the plots versus the kinematic plots acquired from the marker-based that is the Vicon motion system gait technique. In addition, these kinematic angles are also validated using the statistical method namely the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results showed that the ρ-values are insignificant for all angles upon computing both the intra-group and inter-group normalization. Hence, these findings have proven that the proposed markerless-based gait technique is indeed apt to be used as a new alternative markerless method for gait analysis of ASD children.

Highlights

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a development disorder that can be characterized by several difficulties such as in the learning process, communication, as well as social skills [1]
The plots based on the original gait data similar shapes are visualized for the knee angles of the walking gait generated from both techniques in the ASD as well as the typically healthy developing (TD) group
The same goes for the ankle angle plots which are not similar using both techniques for the ASD and TD groups

Summary

Introduction

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a development disorder that can be characterized by several difficulties such as in the learning process, communication, as well as social skills [1]. Due to the sensory conflicts, researchers face challenges in performing gait assessments to further provide suitable care and treatment [7]. ASD children are found to face more challenges in receiving both the treatment and care as compared to other children with developmental delays, especially the requirement for these children to be examined in an unfamiliar testing environment [7], [8] & [9]. Gait analysis involving ASD children is vital. This is because reliable gait information will help determine the level of deficit specificity as the evaluation tools [5]

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