Measuring Gait Speed Passively To Diagnose Diseases

You may not realize it, but how fast a person walks is an important indicator of overall health. We all instinctively know that we lag noticeably when a cold or the flu hits, but monitoring gait speed can help diagnose a plethora of chronic diseases and conditions. Wearables like Fitbit would be one way to monitor gait speed, but the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT thinks there’s a better way:  a wireless appliance that measures gait speed passively.

CSAIL’s sensor, dubbed WiTrack (PDF), is a wall-mounted plaque that could be easily concealed as a picture or mirror. It sends out low-power RF signals between about 5- and 7-GHz to perform 3D motion tracking in real time. The WiTrack sensor has a resolution of about 8 cm at those frequencies. With their WiGait algorithms (PDF), the CSAIL team led by [Chen-Yu Hsu] is able to measure not only overall walking speed, but also stride length. That turns out to be critical to predicting the onset of such diseases as Parkinson’s, which has a very characteristic shuffling gait in the early phase of the disease. Mobility impairments from other diseases, like ALS and multiple sclerosis, could also be identified.

WiTrack builds on [Hsu]’s previous work with through-wall RF tracking. It’s nice to see a novel technique coming closer to a useful product, and we’ll be watching to see where this one goes.

5 thoughts on “Measuring Gait Speed Passively To Diagnose Diseases

  1. Ever measured a distance with a laser then used it to pace laps totalling 5000 meters then compared that to the sort of devices that tell you how far you have walked? They are garbage, even when the software has an accurate measurement of your height etc.

  2. Sometimes when my feet hurt, I walk faster, to get someplace sooner to rest my feet.
    Sometimes, when my feet hurt, I drive faster, to get someplace quicker to rest my feet.
    (Foot pressing on accelerator )

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