Standardizing head movements in gait assessment through augmented reality, a cross-sectional study

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Human Movement Analysis
• Augmented Reality Technology

Background:

• Head movements significantly impact balance during locomotion, yet standardized methods for assessment are lacking.
• Previous studies faced challenges due to non-standardized experimental setups for evaluating head movement effects on gait.
• This research focuses on validating an augmented reality (AR) cueing setup for head movements in gait assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate an AR cueing setup for head movements during gait assessment.
• To investigate the task performance accuracy of the AR setup.
• To assess the hardware's impact on head kinematics and the standardization capabilities of AR cueing compared to traditional methods.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 25 healthy adults performing a 3D-motion capture gait protocol.
• Three walking conditions were tested: auditory-cued head turns, auditory-cued head turns with an AR head-mounted display (AR-HMD), and AR-cued head turns using an AR-HMD.
• Head kinematics and eye movements were recorded, with task performance accuracy measured by coherency between head/eye and the AR hologram.

Main Results:

• High task performance accuracy was achieved (eyes-hologram: 99.5%; head-hologram: 98.8%).
• The AR-HMD hardware impacted angular head velocity but not the range of motion.
• AR cueing demonstrated superior standardization of head movements compared to auditory cueing, evidenced by lower kinematic profile variances.

Conclusions:

• An AR-HMD setup enables more standardized head movements with high task performance accuracy in gait assessment.
• This study provides proof of concept for using AR-elicited head movements in gait analysis for healthy individuals.
• The findings suggest AR technology can overcome limitations of non-standardized experimental setups in human locomotion research.