Fast embedded feet pose estimation based on a depth camera for smart walker

Assisted gait monitoring could benefit from the measurement of feet position and orientation. These measurements could also be used to implement intention-based control laws for smart walkers. Several works have been dedicated to the detection of lower limbs. The proposed methods are usually fast, but only detect the position of the legs. Others may even be more complete, but are not adapted to reactive applications. Also, they often use markers attached on the feet, which is unsuitable in daily routine. In this paper, a fast feet position and orientation detection algorithm is proposed. It is based on a camera depth sensor and does not require the use of any marker. The obtained results are compared with a ground truth provided by a motion traking system to experimentally assess the performances of the proposed algorithm.