Wearable Biofeedback System to Induce Desired Walking Speed in Overground Gait Training.

Huanghe Zhang,Ashwini K Rao,Yefei Yin,Damiano Zanotto,Yufeng Zhang,Zhuo Chen,Yi Guo

doi:10.3390/s20144002

Huanghe Zhang, Ashwini K Rao + Show 5 more

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Journal: Sensors	Publication Date: Jul 18, 2020
Citations: 15	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Stevens Institute of Technology, Columbia University

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Biofeedback systems have been extensively used in walking exercises for gait improvement. Past research has focused on modulating the wearer’s cadence, gait variability, or symmetry, but none of the previous works has addressed the problem of inducing a desired walking speed in the wearer. In this paper, we present a new, minimally obtrusive wearable biofeedback system (WBS) that uses closed-loop vibrotactile control to elicit desired changes in the wearer’s walking speed, based on the predicted user response to anticipatory and delayed feedback. The performance of the proposed control was compared to conventional open-loop rhythmic vibrotactile stimulation with N = 10 healthy individuals who were asked to complete a set of walking tasks along an oval path. The closed-loop vibrotactile control consistently demonstrated better performance than the open-loop control in inducing desired changes in the wearer’s walking speed, both with constant and with time-varying target walking speeds. Neither open-loop nor closed-loop stimuli affected natural gait significantly, when the target walking speed was set to the individual’s preferred walking speed. Given the importance of walking speed as a summary indicator of health and physical performance, the closed-loop vibrotactile control can pave the way for new technology-enhanced protocols for gait rehabilitation.

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IntroductionResearch has shown that decreased walking speed is associated with fear of falling, and increased stride-to-stride (STS) variability in walking speed is a predictor of future falls in the elderly [2]
Walking speed is a responsive measure of functional status and overall health [1].Research has shown that decreased walking speed is associated with fear of falling, and increased stride-to-stride (STS) variability in walking speed is a predictor of future falls in the elderly [2].for community-dwelling elderly, low walking speed is associated with mortality [3]; the decline in walking speed is predictive of disability [4]; and lower preferred walking speed was found to be a consistent risk factor for cognitive impairment and institutionalization [5]
One sample Wilcoxon signed-rank tests revealed no significant differences in SV, CAD, and their coefficients of variation relative to the BL values

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Introduction

Research has shown that decreased walking speed is associated with fear of falling, and increased stride-to-stride (STS) variability in walking speed is a predictor of future falls in the elderly [2]. For community-dwelling elderly, low walking speed is associated with mortality [3]; the decline in walking speed is predictive of disability [4]; and lower preferred walking speed was found to be a consistent risk factor for cognitive impairment and institutionalization [5]. Many exercise programs to improve fitness, endurance, strength, and balance in the elderly include a walking exercise component as part of broader multi-faceted interventions [11,12,13], and self-selected walking speed is often regarded as an essential outcome of these interventions [14].

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