Influence of lower extremity alignment on human gait based on wireless sensors

This study was conducted to measure human gait locomotion according to different lower extremity alignments, and to assess the alignment effects on knees and leg muscles. We analyzed the movements of a walking person, particularly assessing the ground reaction force and muscle potential. Patients were separated into three groups by knee arrangement as normal, genu varum, and genu valgum. After fitting markers to the patients, motion capture imaging was used to analyze their movements. Thereby, we ascertained the locus of the knee-joint marker. Different movement features were clarified when we observed a front view of each knee-type. Next, we measured the ground reaction force using a tactile sensor, which revealed no great difference in the results among these knee types. Finally, we measured the muscle potential. Results of the vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, gastrocnemius medialis and adductor longus reveal differences among knee types. This report describes results measured using multimodal sensors for the influence on walking activity by the difference of lower extremity alignment.