Technologies and Techniques in Gait Analysis

Gait analysis is the study of how 'correctly' a person walks. This can include measurements of step length, stride length, cadence, speed, whether someone walks in a straight line or veers to one side, and the angle of the foot, hip, pelvis or spine when walking. Gait analysis can be used to assess rehabilitation, for example, following limb injury or amputation, or other disorder such as a stroke event or Parkinson's diagnosis. It can be used to influence intervention decisions (eg. Should a patient undergo surgery, further physiotherapy, or begin a particular treatment regime?) Gait analysis can also be used in sports science to monitor and review performance and technique.

Gait can be recorded via pressure pad sensors, force plates, in-shoe pressure systems, through marker-based or markerless systems using various cameras or sensors to calculate body positions in a set sequence of movements.

This book will focus on both the hardware systems for collecting data on speed, pressure, angles etc. as well as data visualisation and mathematical models for interpreting the data.

The book is written by a range of international researchers from academia, industry, and clinical settings which will provide a complete overview of gait analysis technologies suitable for an audience of engineers in rehabilitation technologies or other biomedical engineering fields.