A Step Towards Design and Validation of Portable, Cost-effective Device for Gait Characterization

Technological progress and motor-Assisted transportation have increased the sedentary nature of one's work life. In turn, this often robs away one's regular walking habit. However, increased awareness towards one's fitness and ill-effects of sedentary lifestyle have encouraged individuals to monitor their daily physical exercise such as, walking. The quantitative assessment of one's gait (manner of walking), requires an objective and reliable technique that can be used as a part and parcel of one's daily living. State-of-The-Art technologies for quantification of one's gait, such as stereophotogrammetric systems, floor mats, etc.Though accurate, often suffer from issues related to portability, affordability and setup complexity. This necessitates the use of light-weight, portable, affordable and user-friendly wearable devices for monitoring one's gait. Here, we have designed a pair of cost-effective, portable and user-friendly Sensored Shoe that can offer quantification of one's gait-related indices such as, stride length, step length, %stance, %swing and symmetry index. Further, we have validated some of the gait-related indices measured by the Sensored Shoe with that measured using the standard method, namely, paper-based setup. Results of our preliminary study with healthy participants show (i) the feasibility of the Sensored Shoe to measure at least some of the gait-related indices and (ii) good agreement of these indices with the paper-based setup.