MyWalk: A mobile app for gait asymmetry rehabilitation in the community

摘要

MyWalk is a mobile app to enable gait rehabilitation in the community. Particularly, it can be used to treat and assess step-time asymmetry (STA) - which occurs when the amount of time between consecutive heel strikes is uneven. Temporal gait asymmetry, of which STA is a form, is common post-stroke and could result in difficulties such as joint degeneration or musculoskeletal pain. By enabling STA rehabilitation on a smartphone, post-stroke patients can now improve and assess their STA within the context of their everyday environments. Initial validation of MyWalk's algorithm showed minimal error (RMSE 2.20–2.67%) versus a foot-switch ground truth in detecting STA for symmetric walking conditions, but larger error (RMSE 13.82–16.34%) in asymmetric walking conditions. Future work will be to improve the accuracy of MyWalk's STA algorithm.