Comparative study on classifying gait with a single trunk-mounted inertial-magnetic measurement unit

Athletes and their coaches aim for enhancing the sports performance. Collecting data from athletes, transforming them into useful information related to their sports performance (e.g., their type of gait), and transmitting the information to the coaches supports the enhancement. The types of gait standing, walking, and running were often examined. Lack of research remains for the two types of running, jogging and sprinting. In this work, standing, walking, jogging, and sprinting were classified with a single inertial-magnetic measurement unit that was placed at a novel position at the trunk. A comparison was made between classification systems using different combinations of accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer data as well as different classifiers (Naïve Bayes, k-Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Machine, Adaptive Boosting). After collecting data from 15 male subjects, the data were preprocessed, features were extracted and selected, and the data were classified. All classification systems were successful. With a mean true positive rate of 95.68% ±1.80%, the classification system using accelerometer and gyroscope data as well as the Naïve Bayes classifier performed best. The classification system can be used for applications in sport and sports performance analysis in particular.