Experimental Performance Assessment and Comparison of IMU-Equipped Wearable Devices for Gait Analysis

Wearable sensing technologies are gaining increasing interest in the context of motion assessing and monitoring for clinical applications. Conventional systems are often limited by obtrusive configurations composed by multiple sensors to be attached to specific body locations. This kind of setting, however, is not practical for patients suffering from motor dysfunctions, who need simple and easy-to-use wearable systems. In this context, we propose a compatible analysis of inertial devices, including a novel, custom-made wearable inertial sensor which can be employed in a single-node configuration. By comparing the performance of this device to a validated reference motion capture system, we demonstrate its reliability in the characterization of common gait features.