Validation of a gyroscopes-based protocol for the assessment of gait symmetry in above-knee amputees

There is an urgent need in the rehabilitation of above-knee amputees (AKA) for inexpensive systems able to provide, in real-time, quantitative information about gait symmetry. Traditional optoelectronic systems fail in this task being restricted to the laboratory workspace, expensive and time consuming. As a solution, a protocol named Symmetry Evaluation of Amputee Gait (SEAG) has been proposed (Raggi, 2006). SEAG is based on the acquisition of the medio-lateral angular velocity of both shanks with mono-axial gyroscopes, and on the identification of specific features of these signals related to heel-strike and toe-off of both sides. Since the real-time features identification proved to be reliable (Raggi, 2006), the aim of this paper was to verify the overall precision of SEAG in the estimation of steps and strides duration.