Article

A force-plate instrumented treadmill (Hp Cosmos Gaitway) was used to validate the
use of a miniaturised lightweight ear-worn sensor (7.4 g) for gait monitoring.
Thirty-four healthy subjects were asked to progress up to their maximum walking
speed on the treadmill
(starting at 5 km/h, with 0.5 km increments). The sensor
houses a 3D accelerometer which measures medio-lateral (ML), vertical (VT) and
anterior-posterior (AP) acceleration. Maximum signal ranges and zero crossings
were derived from accelerometer signals per axis, having corrected for head
motion and signal noise. The maximal force, measured by the instrumented
treadmill correlated best with a combination of VT and AP acceleration (R-squared
= 0.36, p = 0), and combined VT, ML, and AP acceleration (R-squared=0.36, p = 0).
Weight-acceptance peak force and impulse values also correlated well with VT and
AP acceleration (Weight acceptance: R-squared = 0.35, p = 0, Impulse: 0.26, p =
0), and combined VT, ML, and AP acceleration (Weight acceptance: R-squared =
0.35, p = 0, Impulse: 0.26, p=0). Zero crossing features on the ML axis provided
an accurate prediction of the gait-cycle, with a mean difference of 0.03s (-0.01,
0.05 confidence intervals).
CI - Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS