Remote Gait Analysis as a Proxy for Traditional Gait Laboratories: Utilizing Smartphones for Subject-Driven Gait Assessment across Differing Terrains

Gait analysis has applications in medical diagnosis, biometrics, and development of therapeutic rehabilitation interventions (such as orthotics, prosthetics, exoskeletons). While offering accurate measurements, gait laboratories are expensive, not scalable, easily accessible. In a pandemic-afflicted world, where telemedicine is crucial, there need for subject-driven data remote collection. This study proposed purely procedure reproducible scalable collection real-life data. To evaluate the feasibility our procedure, spatiotemporal parameters were compared across two terrains using smartphone application on focus population healthy middle-aged individuals. Previous research validated motion sensors instruments analysis, but required highly supervised, controlled environments smaller sample sizes, thereby limiting analysis. this end, custom-designed mobile was developed to record lower extremity angular velocities 69 adults; factoring submission error rate (DSER) 17.4%, 57 usable sets Comparisons primary outcome measures grass versus asphalt revealed significant measurable increases duration (stride time), valley depth (max swing phase), peak-to-valley stance phase max phase). These results demonstrated smartphones fully Additionally, showed that even short trials, physical environmental load substantial effect understudied population.