GAIT ANALYSIS SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20140156215A1
• Filed: 12/04/2013
• Published: 06/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Under Armour Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mapmyfitness Incorporated (Under Armour Incorporated)
• Inventors: Callahan, Kevin, Thurston, Robin, Eastman, Kyler
• Granted Patent: US 9,700,241 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/141
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/112 Gait analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers

Abstract

A system for gait analysis may include a mobile data recording device configured to record accelerations associated with user motion and a data processing device in communication with the mobile data recording device. The data processing device can be configured to receive acceleration data from the mobile data recording device and process the acceleration data to extract stride data sequences from the acceleration data through use of bounding boxes on one or more points of the acceleration data. Each of the stride data sequences comprising data for a corresponding stride. The bounding boxes may define time and acceleration bounds. The data processing system may further determine one or more stride metrics. According to one embodiment, the data recording device may be a smartphone or other device having an accelerometer with a limited range that is inadequate to capture the full range of accelerations experienced by a runner.

Claims

1. A system for gait analysis comprising:

a mobile data recording device comprising an accelerometer, the data recording device configured to record accelerations associated with user motion;

a data processing device in communication with the mobile data recording device, the data processing device configured to;

receive acceleration data from the mobile data recording device;

process the acceleration data to extract stride data sequences from the acceleration data through use of bounding boxes on one or more points of the acceleration data, the bounding boxes defining time and acceleration bounds, each of the stride data sequences comprising data for a corresponding stride; and

determine one or more stride metrics utilizing the stride data sequences.

2. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the acceleration bounds are vertical acceleration bounds.

3. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the data recording device comprises a smartphone.

4. A system in accordance with claim 3, wherein the data processing device comprises a server.

5. A system in accordance with claim 3, wherein the accelerometer has a vertical acceleration limit such that vertical acceleration data for a runner is clipped at the acceleration limit.

6. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the data processing device is further configured to utilize lateral acceleration data to left/right sort strides.

7. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the data processing device is further configured to provide the one or more stride metrics to the data recording device for display to the user in real time.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more stride metrics comprise at least one of a stride rate, measure correlated to maximum vertical acceleration or contact time.

9. A method for gait analysis, comprising:

at a mobile data recording device comprising a sensor, recording acceleration data associated with a user'"'"'s gait collected during a run; and

at a data processing device, processing the acceleration data to extract stride data sequences from acceleration data corresponding to the run through use of bounding boxes on one or more points of the acceleration data, the bounding boxes defining time and acceleration bounds, each of the stride data sequences defining a stride;

determining one or more stride metrics utilizing the stride data sequences; and

providing the one or more stride metrics for display on a display device.

10. A method in accordance with claim 9, wherein the acceleration bounds are vertical acceleration bounds.

11. A method in accordance with claim 10, further comprising, determining a measure correlated with maximum vertical acceleration from the stride data sequences based on a sum of accelerations above and below a threshold.

12. A method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising sorting left and right strides based on lateral acceleration data.

13. A method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising, determining stride rate based on the stride data sequences.

14. A method in accordance with claim 9, further comprising, determining contact time based on the stride data sequences.

15. A method in accordance with claim 9, wherein the data recording device comprises a smartphone.

16. A method in accordance with claim 15, wherein the data processing device comprises a server.

17. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions for implementing a method for gait analysis, comprising:

receiving acceleration data collected by a mobile data recording device carried by a user;

extracting stride data sequences from the acceleration data through use of bounding boxes on one or more points of the acceleration data, the bounding boxes defining time and acceleration bounds, each of the stride data sequences comprising data for a corresponding stride;

determining one or more stride metrics utilizing the stride data sequences;

providing the one or more stride metrics for display by the data recording device.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the acceleration bounds are vertical acceleration bounds.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the method comprises determining a measure correlated with maximum vertical acceleration from the stride data sequences based on a sum of accelerations above and below a threshold.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, where the method further comprises determining stride rate based on the stride data sequences.

21. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises determining contact time based on the stride data sequences.