Inertial sensor based and shoe size independent gait analysis including heel and toe clearance estimation

Falls are a major cause for morbidity and mortality in the ageing society. Inertial sensor based gait assessment including the analysis of the heel and toe clearance can be an indicator for the risk of falling. This paper presents a method for calculating the continuous heel and toe clearance without the knowledge of the shoe dimensions as well as the foot angle in the sagittal plane. These gait parameters were validated using an optical motion capture system. 20 healthy subjects from 3 different age groups (young, mid age, old) performed gait trials with different stride lengths and stride velocities. We obtained low mean absolute errors, low standard deviations and high Pearson correlations (0.91-0.99) for all gait parameters. In summary, we implemented a viable algorithm for the calculation of the heel and toe clearance without knowing the shoe dimensions as well as the foot angle in sagittal plane. We conclude that the given method is applicable for a mobile and unobtrusive gait assessment for healthy subjects from all age classes.

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