Wearable Accelerometer System for Measuring the Temporal Parameters of Gait

Abstract

A small and wireless accelerometer system was developed for the estimation of temporal gait parameters. The new system was built using two 3-axis accelerometers. Measurement's accuracy was assessed using as a criterion standard provided by foot switches. To assess the consistency of this system, estimates of heel contact and toe off time based on accelerometers and those based on footswitches were compared for 20 steps from 8 individual healthy subjects. Accelerometers and footswitches had high consistency in the temporal gait parameters. The stance, swing, single support, and double support time of gait cycle revealed ICCs values of 0.95, 0.93, 0.86, and 0.75 on the right and 0.96, 0.86, 0.93, 0.84 on the left, respectively. Therefore, this system proved to be a reliable tool for identification of temporal gait parameters.