Wearable Technology for Evaluation of Risk of Falls

One's risk of fall can be quantified in terms of variability in one's gait, reflecting a loss of automatic rhythm of one's gait. In gait analysis, variability is commonly understood in terms of the fluctuation in the kinematic, kinetic, spatio-temporal, or physiological information. Here, we have focused on the estimation of knee joint angle (kinematic variable) synchronized with some of the kinetic and spatio-temporal gait parameters while an individual walked overground. Our system consisted of a pair of shoes with instrumented insoles and knee flexion/extension recorder unit having bend sensors. In addition, we have used the Coefficient of Variation for estimating the variability in the knee flexion/extension angle while walking overground as an indicator of the risk of fall. A study with healthy individuals (young and old) walking overground on pathways having 0 0 and 180 0 turning angles indicated the feasibility of our wearable system to compute the variability in knee flexion/extension angle as an indicator of the risk of fall.