Abstract
Gait analysis and more specifically ambulatory monitoring of temporal and spatial gait parameters may open relevant fields of applications in activity tracking, sports and also in the assessment and treatment of specific diseases. Wearable technology can boost this scenario by spreading the adoption of monitoring systems to a wide set of healthy users or patients. In this context, we assessed a recently developed commercial smart shoe—the FootMoov—for automatic gait phase detection in level walking. FootMoov has built-in force sensors and a triaxial accelerometer and is able to transmit the sensor data to the smartphone through a wireless connection. We developed a dedicated gait phase detection algorithm relying both on force and inertial information. We tested the smart shoe on ten healthy subjects in free level walking conditions and in a laboratory setting in comparison with an optical motion capture system. Results confirmed a reliable detection of the gait phases. The maximum error committed, on the order of 44.7 ms, is comparable with previous studies. Our results confirmed the possibility to exploit consumer wearable devices to extract relevant parameters to improve the subject health or to better manage his/her progressions.
Highlights
We developed a dedicated gait phase detection algorithm that combines the information extracted from the force and accelerometer sensors of the FootMoov smart shoe
We evaluated the FootMoov prototype and our gait phase detection algorithm in comparison with a reference gait phase signal obtained through an optical motion capture device
We have reported the assessment of a consumer smart sensing shoe for the detection of gait phases during walking activity
Summary
Many groups have carried out research and development on wearable electronics and sensors for unobtrusive, ambulatory and daily-life monitoring of human subjects.The results obtained have shown the possibility to use personal wearable devices to assist and support chronic patients [1,2,3,4,5,6,7], elderly people [8,9], emergency operators [10,11] and healthy subjects for sports, wellness and prevention [12,13,14]. The current trend is to augment objects worn on the body—e.g., watches, glasses, bracelets—with information and communications technology (ICT) to enable a bi-directional data exchange with a smartphone. These wearable devices or wearables have been initially conceived as technological gadgets but have the potential to support the user in the self-management of his/her health and wellness. Smart bracelets and/or watches can include physiological (e.g., photoplethysmography, electrodermal activity) or inertial (accelerometers, gyroscopes) sensors able to perform real-time monitoring of subject’s health parameters and movement/physical activity. Recent studies have reported the first attempts to employ smart watches/bracelets in e-health applications [15,16,17,18,19] and many more are expected in the years to come
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