Validated extraction of gait events from 3D accelerometer recordings

This work is part of a project that deals with the three-dimensional (3D) analysis of normal and pathological gaits based on a newly developed system for clinical applications, using low-cost wireless accelerometers and a signal processing algorithm. This system automatically extracts relevant gait events such as the heel strikes (HS) and the toe-offs (TO), which characterize the stance and the swing phases of walking. The performances of the low-cost accelerometer hardware and related algorithm have been compared to those obtained by a kinematic 3D analysis system and a force plate, used as gold standard methods. The HS and TO times obtained from the gait data of 7 healthy volunteers (147 trials) have been found to be (mean ± standard deviation) 0.42±7.92 ms and 3.11±10.08 ms later than those determined by the force plate, respectively. The experimental results demonstrate that the new hardware and associated algorithm constitute an effective low-cost gait analysis system, which could thus be used for the assessment of mobility in routine clinical practice.