Portable instrument for ambulatory monitoring of human posture together with walking speed-preliminary study for walking speed measurement

For developing an ambulatory instrument for monitoring human posture together with walking speed, preliminary study for measuring walking speed using flexible goniometers was carried out. Commercially available flexible goniometers were attached on the subject´s hip and knee joint to measure each joint angles in sagittal plane and the angle data were recorded during treadmill walking. From the recorded data, one gait cycle was measured and the subject´s stride length was estimated. Using these values and subject´s leg length, walking speed was calculated. From the linear relationship between the calculated speed and true value (treadmill speed), it was confirmed that subject´s walking speed could be estimated from the goniometer output attached to the subject´s hip joint, and that this method could be applied for the above mentioned ambulatory instrument