Wearable Gait Detection Device by Perception of Proximity and Pressure at the Knee

Wearable long-term gait detection is of great significance for healthcare, rehabilitation, and exercise training. Current wearable gait detection devices are generally less flexible, making them unsuitable for daily and long-term usage. Furthermore, they can only extract limited gait features, such as step count, which hampers their practical applications. This article introduces a novel gait detection approach that uniquely combines flexible contactless proximity sensing with contact pressure sensing at the knee, enabling the detection of leg swings and measurement of swing force during walking. A flexible, wireless, multifunctional integrated electronic device is simultaneously developed for daily wearable gait detection, which is generally lightweight and fully-flexible, ensuring comfortable wear. This innovative method not only captures traditional step characteristics but also provides insights into spatial gait characteristics, such as stride length and spatial leg posture, which have previously been challenging to identify using flexible gait detection devices. Our extensive multi-scenario and long-term monitoring experiments demonstrate the potential of this flexible device for daily wearable gait assessment, representing a significant advancement in the field.