INTEGRATED GAIT ANALYSIS - A COMPLEX EXPE RT-SYSTEM APPROACH FOR DETAILED DATA ASSESSMENT

Integrated Gait Analysis is still not accepted as an important tool in a routine clinical environment because of its lack of assessment proc edures closely based on the raw data measurements. Furthermore, an ade quate treatment of the complex process of human movement is missing. T his contribution is intended to successively describe the scheme of a dedicated approach for gait analysis data assessment. Therein, differe nt technologies already discussed in the literature have been used. So me examples are given for the purpose of illustration. To provide in a dvance sufficiently different and well-known measurement conditions, e xtreme manipulations in the alignment of below-knee prostheses have be en carried out. It is shown that some specific data formats consisting of subgroups of gait patterns have turned out to be important for fur ther partial processing and for interfacing the different subsystems. However, due to data characteristics of the raw data and the lack of a well-founded a priori knowledge, some principal questions have to be left open. Therefore, on the basis of the different results presented below and their discussion, a more detailed model of the process is pr oposed for further research following this concept.