Spatiotemporal analysis of human gait, based on feet trajectories estimated by means of depth sensors

This paper addresses a methodology for the analysis of human gait, based on the data acquired by means of depth sensors. This methodology is dedicated to healthcare-related applications and involves the identification of the phases of the gait cycle by thresholding estimates of velocities of the examined person’s feet. In order to assess its performance, a series of experiments was carried out using a reference gait-analysis system based on a pressure-distribution-measurement platform. An original method for quantifying gait asymmetry, based on a quasi-correlation between the feet trajectories, was also proposed and tested experimentally. The results of the reported experiments seem to promise a high applicability potential of the considered methodology.