Shull Pete B, Jirattigalachote Wisit, Hunt Michael A, Cutkosky Mark R, Delp Scott L
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Gait Posture. 2014;40(1):11-9. doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2014.03.189. Epub 2014 Apr 6.
The proliferation of miniaturized electronics has fueled a shift toward wearable sensors and feedback devices for the mass population. Quantified self and other similar movements involving wearable systems have gained recent interest. However, it is unclear what the clinical impact of these enabling technologies is on human gait. The purpose of this review is to assess clinical applications of wearable sensing and feedback for human gait and to identify areas of future research. Four electronic databases were searched to find articles employing wearable sensing or feedback for movements of the foot, ankle, shank, thigh, hip, pelvis, and trunk during gait. We retrieved 76 articles that met the inclusion criteria and identified four common clinical applications: (1) identifying movement disorders, (2) assessing surgical outcomes, (3) improving walking stability, and (4) reducing joint loading. Characteristics of knee and trunk motion were the most frequent gait parameters for both wearable sensing and wearable feedback. Most articles performed testing on healthy subjects, and the most prevalent patient populations were osteoarthritis, vestibular loss, Parkinson's disease, and post-stroke hemiplegia. The most widely used wearable sensors were inertial measurement units (accelerometer and gyroscope packaged together) and goniometers. Haptic (touch) and auditory were the most common feedback sensations. This review highlights the current state of the literature and demonstrates substantial potential clinical benefits of wearable sensing and feedback. Future research should focus on wearable sensing and feedback in patient populations, in natural human environments outside the laboratory such as at home or work, and on continuous, long-term monitoring and intervention.
小型电子设备的激增推动了面向大众的可穿戴传感器和反馈设备的发展。涉及可穿戴系统的“自我量化”及其他类似活动最近受到了关注。然而，这些使能技术对人类步态的临床影响尚不清楚。本综述的目的是评估可穿戴传感与反馈在人类步态方面的临床应用，并确定未来的研究领域。我们检索了四个电子数据库，以查找在步态期间对足部、脚踝、小腿、大腿、髋部、骨盆和躯干的运动采用可穿戴传感或反馈的文章。我们检索到76篇符合纳入标准的文章，并确定了四个常见的临床应用：（1）识别运动障碍，（2）评估手术效果，（3）提高行走稳定性，以及（4）减轻关节负荷。膝盖和躯干运动特征是可穿戴传感和可穿戴反馈最常使用的步态参数。大多数文章对健康受试者进行了测试，最常见的患者群体是骨关节炎、前庭功能丧失、帕金森病和中风后偏瘫。使用最广泛的可穿戴传感器是惯性测量单元（加速度计和陀螺仪组合在一起）和测角仪。触觉（触摸）和听觉是最常见的反馈感觉。本综述突出了当前文献的现状，并展示了可穿戴传感与反馈在临床上的巨大潜在益处。未来的研究应聚焦于患者群体中的可穿戴传感与反馈、实验室之外的自然人类环境（如家庭或工作场所）中的可穿戴传感与反馈，以及持续、长期的监测和干预。
