Citation

Gouwanda D, Gopalai AA. Med. Eng. Phys. 2015; 37(2): 219-225.

Affiliation

Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway, 46150, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia; Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia, CDT 250, 98009, Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. Electronic address: alpha.agape@ieee.org.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.medengphy.2014.12.004

PMID

25619613

Abstract

Gait events detection allows clinicians and biomechanics researchers to determine timing of gait events, to estimate duration of stance phase and swing phase and to segment gait data. It also aids biomedical engineers to improve the design of orthoses and FES (functional electrical stimulation) systems. In recent years, researchers have resorted to using gyroscopes to determine heel-strike (HS) and toe-off (TO) events in gait cycles. However, these methods are subjected to significant delays when implemented in real-time gait monitoring devices, orthoses, and FES systems. Therefore, the work presented in this paper proposes a method that addresses these delays, to ensure real-time gait event detection. The proposed algorithm combines the use of heuristics and zero-crossing method to identify HS and TO. Experiments involving: (1) normal walking; (2) walking with knee brace; and (3) walking with ankle brace for overground walking and treadmill walking were designed to verify and validate the identified HS and TO. The performance of the proposed method was compared against the established gait detection algorithms. It was observed that the proposed method produced detection rate that was comparable to earlier reported methods and recorded reduced time delays, at an average of 100 ms.

Language: en