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. 2022 May 31:195:111076.
doi: 10.1016/j.measurement.2022.111076. Epub 2022 Mar 31.

Measuring Gait Parameters from Structural Vibrations

Benjamin T Davis  1 , Brianna I Bryant  1 , Stacy L Fritz  2 , Reed Handlery  3 , Alicia Flach  2 , Victor A Hirth  1
Affiliations

Measuring Gait Parameters from Structural Vibrations

Benjamin T Davis et al. Measurement (Lond). .

Abstract

Measuring gait parameters (e.g. speed, cadence, step duration) accurately is invaluable for evaluation during treatment of older adults who struggle with disability onset, disease progression, balance, and injurious falls. Traditionally stopwatches or timing gates are used to measure gait speed in clinical settings, and these are limited to measuring gait speed. Other wearable and non-wearable technologies offer the ability to measure additional gait parameters though patients are known to walk differently with the devices and even tend to slow down before engaging with a non-wearable such as a floor mat. Floor vibrations are a promising option to measuring gait parameters while not being intrusive and not requiring line-of-sight to the patient for measurements. This paper presents methodology for extracting gait parameters using vibrations with comparisons to APDM Wearable Technologies Mobility Lab sensors and stopwatch measurements. Performance is examined across 97 participants for self-selected speed forward, full speed forward, and backwards walks at three different testing sites for a total of 1039 walks. Gait speed vibrations measurements demonstrated excellent reliability with APDM Mobility Lab (ICC: 0.98; 99% CI: 0.01±0.01 m/s) and stopwatch (ICC: 0.97; 99% CI: -0.01±0.01 m/s) measurements. Similar excellent results are reported for cadence, gait cycle duration, step duration, and stride length parameters.

Keywords: APDM; cadence; gait cycle duration; gait speed; step duration; stopwatch; stride length; structural vibrations.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relatonships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Example Experimental Layout of the Walking Track
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Example of a Walking Trial Depicting the Track Layout and Sensors
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Floor Vibration Data Samples for Each Walking Type
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Floor Vibration Data Samples for Each Walking Type
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Floor Vibration Data Samples for Each Walking Type
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
Bland-Altman Plots for Each Device Gait Speed Measurement Comparison
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
Bland-Altman Plots for Each Device Gait Speed Measurement Comparison
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
Bland-Altman Plots for Each Device Gait Speed Measurement Comparison
Figure 5:
Figure 5:
Bland-Altman Plots Comparing Vibrations and APDM Measurements
Figure 5:
Figure 5:
Bland-Altman Plots Comparing Vibrations and APDM Measurements
Figure 5:
Figure 5:
Bland-Altman Plots Comparing Vibrations and APDM Measurements
Figure 5:
Figure 5:
Bland-Altman Plots Comparing Vibrations and APDM Measurements
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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