An ultrasonic stride length measuring system employing two digital compasses

We have developed an ultrasonic stride length measuring system for analyzing the human gait. All elements of the system are quite small and each fit into an appropriate package. An ultrasonic transmitter, a digital compass, a radio transmitter and a microcontroller are attached to the subject’s heel on the right shoe and in the direction of the left shoe. Two ultrasonic receivers, a digital compass, a radio receiver, a microcontroller and a 1GB SD memory card are installed on the left shoe. The ultrasonic receivers are attached to the toe and heel in the direction of the right shoe. The walking direction is thus detected by the compass attached on the right and left shoes, respectively. The stride length is detected by the difference between the radio wave and ultrasonic propagation velocities. The stride length is corrected by the detected walking direction, and then the corrected stride length is stored in the SD memory card. When downloaded, the memory card gives the accurate stride length which then is used to characterize the subject’s gait during daily activity.