The history of gait analysis before the advent of modern computers

Abstract

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) can be attributed with the earliest recorded comments regarding the manner in which humans walk. It was not until the renaissance that further progress was made through the experiments and theorising of Giovanni Borelli (1608-1679). Although several scientists wrote about walking through the enlightenment period it was the brothers Willhelm (1804-1891) and Eduard (1806-1871) Weber, working in Leipzig who made the next major contribution based on very simple measurements. Both Jules Etienne Marey (1830-1904), working in France, and Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), working in America, made significant advances in measurement technology. These were developed further by Otto Fischer (1861-1917) in collaboration with Willhelm Braune (1831-1892). The major developments in the early twentieth century were in the development of force plates and the understanding of kinetics. The team headed by Verne Inman (1905-1980) and Howard Eberhart (1906-1993) made major advances in America shortly after the Second War. David Sutherland (1923-2006) and Jacquelin Perry pioneered clinical applications in America and Jurg Baumann (1926-2000) in Europe. It was not until the advent of modern computers that clinical gait analysis became widely available.