MOVISU-FIT: Mobile Gait Training for Limb Loss
To extend gait training beyond the clinic we developed MOVISU-FIT, a wearable system that provides real-time visual feedback for gait training anywhere.
Description
There are 2 million Americans living with limb loss today, and by 2050 this figure is expected to double. As hospital stays have shortened, patients report feeling lost in the gap between the hospital and outpatient rehabilitation, with over 60 percent of lower limb amputees saying their walking ability is not prioritized. After two years of chronic limping or gait deviation, expensive and problematic secondary complications arise, such as low back pain, osteoarthritis, loss of energy, and even inability to walk. The gold standard of rehabilitative gait training is to provide patients with real-time visual feedback – which can be done in the clinic with mirrors and observing clinicians – but when patients practice walking at home or out and about they lack the same level of feedback. MOVISU-FIT is a wearable system that provides lower limb prosthetic users information about the quality of their walking in real time. A sensor in the prosthetic limb provides gait information that MOVISU-FIT transforms into immediate visual feedback that appears unobtrusively on lightweight smart glasses. Existing methods for home gait training require stationary instrumented treadmills or high-speed cameras, whereas MOVISU-FIT offers a lightweight and portable system for those with lower limb prosthetics to improve their walking while at home or on the go.Applications
- Gait training in outpatient or inpatient physical therapy settings, skilled nursing facilities, or at home- Assessing gait in a prosthetic clinic during adjustments and fittings
- The underlying technology could be adapted to other gait dysfunction populations (e.g., Parkinson’s Disease, stroke, or joint replacement)
Advantages
- Provides gold standard gait training previously unavailable outside the laboratory- Can be used anywhere
- Lightweight and minimally obstructive to vision
- Immediate visual feedback on performance
- Provides both evaluation and training in one system