A Comparative Study of Gait Analysis Technologies.

Gait analysis is the systematic study of the movement of human locomotion. It has applications in the field of health by allowing the diagnosis of diseases related to gait disturbances, such as the risk of falling or frailty in the elderly. The identification of these pathologies is carried out by analyzing different specific gait parameters, such as speed, time or length of each step, etc. Currently, there are numerous methods or technologies for gait analysis, mainly divided into non-portable systems (optical systems or pressure mapping corridors) and portable systems (inertial sensors, pressure insoles, electromyography, etc.), with different characteristics and limitations. It is important to be able to assess which technique is the most appropriate to use for each type of gait analysis required. In this work, we study and compare three different technologies for gait analysis, two of them commercial: an optical system (optitrack) and a pressure mapping system for human gait analysis (StrideWay); and a dual inertial system to be placed on the feet (IMUE-CSIC, proprietary design). We analyze the main features of each system, as well as their advantages and limitations, including the gait parameters that they can provide directly or indirectly from the recorded information. In addition, gait trials have been carried out using all three systems simultaneously. The results obtained reveal very small differences between them, being less than 0.02 seconds for gait cycle time and 0.03 meters for stride length. The advantages of using IMUs are their low cost and portability (allowing outdoor testing). Despite requiring complex post-processing algorithms, they provide a broad set of gait parameters. The optical system and the pressure mapping corridor for human gait analysis have high resolution, but their high cost and lack of portability make them difficult to use in real conditions outside the laboratory. Additionally, the pressure corridor provides more extensive results on the footprint, useful in physiotherapy or podiatry applications.