Method and system for the derivation of human gait characteristics and detecting falls passively from floor vibrations

Abstract From the Canadian patent

The gait monitor system and method provides various basic gait parameters including step count, cadence, and step duration in addition to its ability , to distinguish between normal limping and shuffling gait modes, as well as determine falls. Moreover, this gait monitor may be provided with additional sensors, e.g. beam break at the beginning and end of a corridor to estimate average walking velocity (with the distance between the beams known or determined); this enables the calculation of additional gait characteristics such as average step length and average stride length. These parameters can additionally be used to detect various gait anomalies and other diagnostic information.