Testing an in-home gait assessment tool for older adults

In this paper, we present results of an automatic vision-based gait assessment tool, using two cameras. Elderly residents from TigerPlace, a retirement community, were recruited to participate in the validation and test of the system in scripted scenarios representing everyday activities. The residents were first tested on a GAITRite mat, an electronic walkway that captures footfalls, and with inexpensive web cameras recording images. The extracted gait parameters from the camera system were compared with the GAITRite; excellent agreement was achieved. The residents then participated in the scenarios, with only the cameras recording. We found that the residents displayed different gait patterns during the realistic scenarios compared to the GAITRite runs. This finding provides support of the importance and advantage of continuous gait assessment in a daily living environment. Results on 4 elderly participants are included in the paper.