Wearable sensing and feedback for gait retraining
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Gait retraining traditionally is performed inside a gait laboratory with expensive equipment such as optical marker-based motion capture and a force sensing treadmill. Bringing gait retraining to patients' homes for their convenience is not possible with such equipment. With the emerging technology in miniaturized sensors, it is becoming possible to monitor and correct gaits at home. This thesis is the first step toward a wearable solution for gait retraining, combining both wearable sensing and feedback in one system. The system enables users to train their gait by way of monitoring foot progression angle and providing haptic feedback about the required motion correction. In wearable sensing, two experiments were conducted to validate the the accuracy and its potential in everyday life activities. The first experiment was done inside a laboratory with an optical marker-based motion capture system and a force sensing treadmill. This experiment confirmed the accuracy of wearable sensing of the foot progression angle while walking on the treadmill under three walking conditions: normal, toe-in, and toe-out, and three walking speeds of 1.0, 1.2, and 1.4 m/s. The accuracy was consistently within 3 degrees average root-mean-square (RMS) error across 13 healthy subjects tested. This accuracy is sufficient for typical gait retraining of foot progression angles above 7 degrees. In the second experiment, wearable sensing system performance outside the lab was demonstrated. Foot progression angle variations on overground walking were found to be statistically different (p < 0.05) than for treadmill walking. However, as the number of strides increases, the variation decreases and eventually levels out. When comparing with a reference system, we found wearable system accuracy to be within 2 degrees average RMS error. These are promising results for outside-the-lab environment tests simulating real-world scenarios. In complement to wearable sensing, a new wearable haptic feedback device was developed, as we believe that gait information can be even more powerful when it is delivered in the form of easily noticeable and accurate feedback. With this new device called the virtual pebble, we stimulate both slowly adapting and fast adapting mechanoreceptors simultaneously. The result is distinctive from typical vibration feedback. An experiment on healthy subjects showed that with the virtual pebble in combination with vibration, there was a 7% increase in feedback accuracy versus with vibration alone during a multi-parameter gait retraining session. Thus, the virtual pebble is a good complementary feedback to the widely used vibration devices. This thesis explores the future of human movement training from a gait retraining standpoint. It presents a wearable solution that could become part of a solution for longer-term monitoring and training at a user's home, allowing for a sustainable and inexpensive training.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Jirattigalachote, Wisit |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
| Primary advisor | Cutkosky, Mark R |
| Thesis advisor | Cutkosky, Mark R |
| Thesis advisor | Andriacchi, Th. P. (Thomas P.) |
| Thesis advisor | Shull, Peter J, 1957- |
| Advisor | Andriacchi, Th. P. (Thomas P.) |
| Advisor | Shull, Peter J, 1957- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Wisit Jirattigalachote. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Wisit Jirattigalachote
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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