Change in the walking speed induced by sound intervention using real-time gait event detection

Abstract

In recent years, people who lack exercise have been increasing. However, it is reported that a lack of exercise leads to chronic diseases. Therefore, if not having a habit of exercising, getting rid of the lack of exercise is hopeful by increasing the exercise intensity of daily behavior. As one of the fundamental daily behavior, walking is considered. It is desired to promote this exercise strength at walking in everyday life by natural intervention. This study focused on the change in walking speed induced by the sound intervention using real-time gait event detection. Experiments were conducted on three healthy males. The following methods were employed for the sound interventions: generating a beep sound in constant tempo (Constant Tempo) and generating a sound in adapted tempo based on the initial contact (Adapted Tempo). Among two interventions, the significant increase in walking speed by entrainment was observed in the latter method which generated the beep sound synchronously with the gait event by detecting the initial contact.