[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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Thick rubber heel pads are used to restrict plantarflexion at the loading response during a gait with ankle-foot orthosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the specific effects of altering the shape and the position of the heel pads on gait. Twenty-seven kinds of experimental condition were determined using an orthogonal table. Seven healthy subjects participated in this study and the gait were measured using a 3D motion analysis system. The results showed that the size and the position of the heel pads changed the ankle joint moment during the loading response and affected the floor reaction force and the spatio-temporal parameters during the gait. Especially, these results indicated that the change in the loading response made a smooth gait throughout the whole gait cycle.

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In order to consider the efficient visual inspection method, this paper examines the difference in inspection method affecting the defects detection. Specifically, variation factors in the designed experimental model that leads subjects to four patterns of eye movement are movement of an inspection object and a way of showing. As a result, the method of moving the object quickly and widely is the way of gazing a wide range at one time involuntarily because the subjects can gaze away at the center of the object for long periods of time. In addition, it is shown that the saccade is an effective eye movement for visual inspection capturing a defect as a sense of incongruity as the result of considering the feature of eye movement.

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In clinical applications, the quantitative analysis of gait variability using kinematic and kinetic data can be helpful to medical doctors in monitoring patient recovery status. High-speed camera system and a stationary force plate can only accurately measure complete ground reaction force (GRF) and body kinematics during a few steps. However, data on successive gait measurements including three dimensional(3D) force and motion in different environments is really desired by clinical researchers and doctors. We have developed a mobile 3D force plate(M3D) by integrating small triaxial force sensors and 3D inertial sensors for estimating multi-axial GRF and orientations of feet during successive gait movements. In order to verify the measurements of the developed system, we used a stationary force plate as a reference measurement system to measure simultaneously the triaxial GRF when a subject was required to wear the M3D. Static and dynamic test experiments were implemented to validate the triaxial force measurement of the M3D. Experimental results verify that the developed system can be used to measure the triaxial force with acceptable precision. Therefore, the wearable system as an alternative device can be a potential solution for measuring triaxial GRF in non-laboratory environments.

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