Smart Walker Design for Clinical Rehabilitation

Abstract

Walkers increase the ability to walk independently and safely but can - when used incorrectly - lead to dangerous situations and injuries. Therefore, it is important that during the rehabilitation injured and/or elderly people learn how to walk with a walker. Currently, patients are dependent of their healthcare professionals to assist them and correct their gait pattern if needed, which limits them in when and where they can train walking. In view of this problem, a smart walker was designed which assists the patient by monitoring feet placement and alerting when incorrect usage is detected. In this way, the patient can train independently. This work describes the design of the smart walker, consisting out of a depth camera, RGB cameras and ultrasonic sensors. These sensors serve as input for a computer model which returns audiovisual feedback to the user.