Gait and Postural Sway Analysis, A Multi-Modal System

Detecting a fall before it actually happens will positively affect lives of the elderly. While the main causes of falling are related to postural sway and walking, determining abnormalities in one of these activities or both of them would be informative to predicting the fall probability. A need exists for a portable gait and postural sway analysis system that can provide individuals with real-time information about changes and quality of gait in the real world, not just in a laboratory. In this research project I aim to build a multi-modal system that finds the correlation between vision extracted features and accelerometer and force plate data to determine a general gait and body sway pattern. Then this information is used to assess a difference to normative age and gender relevant patterns as well as any changes over time. This could provide a core indicator of broader health and function in ageing and disease.