State of the Art in Gait Analysis Using Wearable Sensors for Healthcare Applications

The ability to measure human movement accurately forms an essential part of a clinical assessment, thus allowing the efficacy of therapeutic interventions to be determined. The most commonly used clinical method for assessing human movement is goniometry, motion capture system, Electromagnetic tracking systems and so on. There are some essential limitations in each method. Inertial sensors such as accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes have the potential to be used for assessing human movement in various environments. Numerous studies have reported using systems based on accelerometers or gyroscopes. These two types of sensors may also be combined to study human motions with good accuracy. The present study employed an inertial system which utilized such fusion technology which is reported to provide motion data with better accuracy. This paper reviews walking analysis using wireless inertial sensors currently, analyzes the features of this methods comparing with other methods, and indicates the key problem and the future direction and application domains.