抄録
The 'H-Gait' is a wearable sensor based gait analysis system intended for evaluating the walking ability of a person. The work reported here proposes to advance the 'H-Gait' system by addressing some key features of usability and investigating the effects of walkways on gait. First, the usability issue has been addressed by developing a bespoke GUI for 'H-Gait'. This GUI was capable of showing a step by step gait measurement operation manual through graphic illustrations and presenting the result of the gait analysis by a moving 3D wire frame model in addition to gait parameters. Second, the walkway effects were investigated by comparing the kinematic and spatio-temporal parameters obtained from 'H-Gait' system of normal overground, treadmill and snow road walking. It was found that treadmill walking decreased the stride by 2.2% and increased the cadence by 3.0% when compared with those of overground. The result of regression analysis of each lower joint angle between overground and treadmill walking showed more than 0.89 correlation coefficient and more than 0.95 coefficient of determination. This means there were no significant difference between overground and treadmill walking. It was found that snow road walking increased ankle dorsi-flexion angle at toe-off by 20% and hip flexion angles' mean absolute difference by 10deg.