Development of gait training system with realtime auditory biofeedback for telerehabilitation

This article presents the development of portable walking aid with gait assessment and biofeedback capabilities to realize gait telerehabilitation. The novel gait assessment method based on infrared (IR) cameras and microcontroller was proposed in this developed system so that gait parameters can be accurately achieved and fed back via auditory cue to the patient in realtime during training. Moreover, patient's training information can be automatically recorded and then remotely transmitted to therapists for monitoring of patient's evolution and further adaptive train planning. The gait assessment performance of the developed system was investigated using the conventional motion analyzer (Qualisys system) and it was found that gait assessment parameters with high accuracy and sufficient for clinical practice can be obtained. Thus, this system could be useful to provide the cost-effective and ease-of-use gait training for the patient and enable effective home rehabilitation under the intensive supervision of the therapists at remote site.