A Study of Next-step prediction Method using Smartphone IMU

Advanced, safe, and secure walking support could be possible if the next step of a visually impaired can be estimated before the foot actually touches the ground. We define the next step as one step to touch the ground now. We aim to predict the behavior of this next steps. In this study, we investigate a method to realize next-step landing position prediction using an IMU on a smartphone and discuss the possibility of next-step prediction. Since it is difficult for a person to walk while holding a smartphone steadily against the body, next-step prediction using only an IMU is considered an ill-posed problem. In this study, we assume that there is a pattern in the sway of a person's gait. To learn the pattern, we created a training dataset consisting of pairs of IMU outputs, positions of next steps, and the smartphone position to realize the next-step landing position prediction. We used the angle and distance errors to validate the next-step landing position prediction as the evaluation indices.