Correction Method of Walking Posture Distortion of Elderly by Using Laser Pointer Task

The purpose of this study is to clarify the effectiveness of the new posture correction method of we suggest, aiming at the development of improvement training of posture distortion. We have used Kinect to measure the posture distortion caused by aging, and proposed a method to utilize it for maintaining the health of elderly people. In this paper, we propose a new method to correct posture distortion during walking with the laser pointer by hand, keeping the laser light to the target in the front direction, called Laser Pointer task, and clarify the effectiveness of the method by the experimental analysis. As a result, posture distortion and body wobble of the elderly are reduced during the performance of the Laser Pointer task. Such effects are realized by voluntary control of own gait speed caused by the task and feedback information indicated as the movement of the pointer on the target. This result suggests that the proposed Laser Pointer task is effective as a correction method of posture distortion.