G.A.I.T: gait analysis interactive tool a pipeline for automatic detection of gait events across different motor impairments

Abstract

AbstractWe introduce an open-access tool capable of automatically extracting the timing of gait events during unconstrained locomotion across different neuromotor impairments. The gait analysis interactive tool is conceived as an assistant for gait assessment studies, both in healthy participants or in people with motor impairments affecting gait symmetry, regularity, or balance, as usually encountered in patients with neurological disorders. Our open-access pipeline makes it possible to automatically identify the time of key gait events (heel strike, toe off) from a single gyroscope axis (lateral mid-axis), simplifying experimental protocols, and can easily be used in everyday life conditions. The code is user-friendly and interactive. At each stage of analysis, it allows for possible adjustments and manual corrections of undetected or mismatched events. To implement, test, and validate our algorithm, we used three different databases of gait recordings that span from healthy subjects to patients affected by Parkinson’s disease. The pipeline consists of three main sections that allow us to segment, identify, and eventually correct the events within the gait cycle. The algorithm achieved an average accuracy of 99.23% over healthy participants, either with average weight or overweight, and a performance of 94.84% over patients with Parkinson’s disease. Even if gait analysis is a widely studied problem, so far, no open-source algorithm is available. The present work provides an easy tool capable of working with a minimum set of sensors and without any expensive platform or camera-based system. Employing three databases widely different for the environment, and for the subjects’ age and motor impairments highlights the versatility of our approach.