Overview of Radar-Based Gait Parameter Estimation Techniques for Fall Risk Assessment
Current methods for fall risk assessment rely on Quantitative Gait Analysis (QGA) using costly optical tracking systems, which are often only available at specialized laboratories that may not be easily accessible to rural communities. Radar placed in a home or assisted living facility can acquire c...
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IEEE
2024-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10546280/ |
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| author | Sevgi Z. Gurbuz Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman Zahra Bassiri Dario Martelli |
| author_facet | Sevgi Z. Gurbuz Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman Zahra Bassiri Dario Martelli |
| author_sort | Sevgi Z. Gurbuz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Current methods for fall risk assessment rely on Quantitative Gait Analysis (QGA) using costly optical tracking systems, which are often only available at specialized laboratories that may not be easily accessible to rural communities. Radar placed in a home or assisted living facility can acquire continuous ambulatory recordings over extended durations of a subject's natural gait and activity. Thus, radar-based QGA has the potential to capture day-to-day variations in gait, is time efficient and removes the burden for the subject to come to a clinic, providing a more realistic picture of older adults’ mobility. Although there has been research on gait-related health monitoring, most of this work focuses on classification-based methods, while only a few consider gait parameter estimation. On the one hand, metrics that are accurately and easily computable from radar data have not been demonstrated to have an established correlation with fall risk or other medical conditions; on the other hand, the accuracy of radar-based estimates of gait parameters that are well-accepted by the medical community as indicators of fall risk have not been adequately validated. This paper provides an overview of emerging radar-based techniques for gait parameter estimation, especially with emphasis on those relevant to fall risk. A pilot study that compares the accuracy of estimating gait parameters from different radar data representations – in particular, the micro-Doppler signature and skeletal point estimates – is conducted based on validation against an 8-camera, marker-based optical tracking system. The results of pilot study are discussed to assess the current state-of-the-art in radar-based QGA and potential directions for future research that can improve radar-based gait parameter estimation accuracy. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c5bcc7a22a5746c894e7068b18ef02f8 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2644-1276 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
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| series | IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology |
| spelling | doaj-art-c5bcc7a22a5746c894e7068b18ef02f82025-01-30T00:03:44ZengIEEEIEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology2644-12762024-01-01573574910.1109/OJEMB.2024.340807810546280Overview of Radar-Based Gait Parameter Estimation Techniques for Fall Risk AssessmentSevgi Z. Gurbuz0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7487-9087Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4883-9767Zahra Bassiri2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2331-3099Dario Martelli3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1903-5372Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USAAdvanced Radar Systems Team of Aptiv Corporation, Kokomo, IN, USACenter for Motion Analysis in the Division of Orthopedic Surgery at Connecticut Children's, Farmington, CT, USADepartment of Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, MedStar Health Research Institute, Baltimore, MD, USACurrent methods for fall risk assessment rely on Quantitative Gait Analysis (QGA) using costly optical tracking systems, which are often only available at specialized laboratories that may not be easily accessible to rural communities. Radar placed in a home or assisted living facility can acquire continuous ambulatory recordings over extended durations of a subject's natural gait and activity. Thus, radar-based QGA has the potential to capture day-to-day variations in gait, is time efficient and removes the burden for the subject to come to a clinic, providing a more realistic picture of older adults’ mobility. Although there has been research on gait-related health monitoring, most of this work focuses on classification-based methods, while only a few consider gait parameter estimation. On the one hand, metrics that are accurately and easily computable from radar data have not been demonstrated to have an established correlation with fall risk or other medical conditions; on the other hand, the accuracy of radar-based estimates of gait parameters that are well-accepted by the medical community as indicators of fall risk have not been adequately validated. This paper provides an overview of emerging radar-based techniques for gait parameter estimation, especially with emphasis on those relevant to fall risk. A pilot study that compares the accuracy of estimating gait parameters from different radar data representations – in particular, the micro-Doppler signature and skeletal point estimates – is conducted based on validation against an 8-camera, marker-based optical tracking system. The results of pilot study are discussed to assess the current state-of-the-art in radar-based QGA and potential directions for future research that can improve radar-based gait parameter estimation accuracy.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10546280/Fall risk assessmentgait parameter estimationmicro-dopplerradarskeleton estimation |
| spellingShingle | Sevgi Z. Gurbuz Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman Zahra Bassiri Dario Martelli Overview of Radar-Based Gait Parameter Estimation Techniques for Fall Risk Assessment IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Fall risk assessment gait parameter estimation micro-doppler radar skeleton estimation |
| title | Overview of Radar-Based Gait Parameter Estimation Techniques for Fall Risk Assessment |
| title_full | Overview of Radar-Based Gait Parameter Estimation Techniques for Fall Risk Assessment |
| title_fullStr | Overview of Radar-Based Gait Parameter Estimation Techniques for Fall Risk Assessment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Overview of Radar-Based Gait Parameter Estimation Techniques for Fall Risk Assessment |
| title_short | Overview of Radar-Based Gait Parameter Estimation Techniques for Fall Risk Assessment |
| title_sort | overview of radar based gait parameter estimation techniques for fall risk assessment |
| topic | Fall risk assessment gait parameter estimation micro-doppler radar skeleton estimation |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10546280/ |
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