Toward automated plantar pressure analysis: machine learning-based segmentation and key point detection across...

Plantar pressure analysis is a pivotal tool for assessing foot function, diagnosing deformities, and characterizing gait patterns. Traditional proportion-based segmentation methods are often limited, particularly for atypical foot structures and low-quality data. Although recent advances in machine learning (ML) offer opportunities for automated and robust segmentation across diverse datasets, existing models primarily rely on data from single laboratories, limiting their applicability to multicenter datasets. Furthermore, the prediction of relevant landmarks on the plantar pressure profile has not been explored. This study addresses these gaps by exploring ML-based approaches for anatomical zone segmentation and landmark detection in plantar pressure analysis, including 758 plantar pressure samples from 460 individuals (197 females, 263 males) collected from multiple centers during static and dynamic conditions using two distinct systems. The datasets were further standardized and augmented. The plantar surface was segmented into four regions (hallux, metatarsal area 1, metatarsal areas 2-5, and the heel) using a U-Net model, and deep learning regression models predicted the key points, such as interdigital space coordinates and the center of metatarsal area 1. The results underscore the U-Net's capacity to attain an accuracy comparable to that of experts (Median Dice Scores ≥ 0.88), particularly in regions with well-defined plantar pressure boundaries. Metatarsal area 1 exhibited unique characteristics because of its ambiguous boundaries, with expert reviews playing a valuable role in enhancing accuracy in critical cases. Using a regression model (Median Euclidean distance = 7.72) or an ensemble model (Median Euclidean distance = 5.26) did not improve calculating the center of metatarsal area 1 directly from the segmentation model (Median Euclidean distance = 4.47). Furthermore, regression-based approaches generated higher errors in key point detection of the interdigital space 2-3 (Median Euclidean distance = 10.06) than in metatarsal area 1 center (Median Euclidean distance = 7.72). These findings emphasize the robustness of the proposed segmentation and key point prediction models across diverse datasets and hardware setups. Overall, the proposed methods facilitate the efficient processing of large, multicenter datasets across diverse hardware setups, significantly reducing the reliance on extensive human labeling, lowering costs, and minimizing subjective bias through ML-driven standardization. Leveraging these strengths, this work introduces a novel framework that integrates multicenter plantar pressure data for both segmentation and landmark detection, offering practical value in clinical and research settings by enabling standardized, automated analyses across varying hardware configurations.