The use of SHIMMER to detect stride time in running gait

Abstract

Wireless sensing solutions that provide for accurate long term monitoring of walking and running stride characteristics in a real world environment would be an excellent tool for biomechanics researchers. SHIMMER™ is a small, wireless, low-power inertial sensor with a large storage capacity that facilitates wearable wireless sensing in both connected and disconnected modes. It is a very flexible, multi-sensing device, consisting of a tri-axial accelerometer, with options of add-on daughter boards such as tri-axial gyropscopes, or ECG/EMG sensors. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of the SHIMMER wireless sensor platform for the determination of heel-strike and stride times, across a range of speeds, to a marker-based motion capture system (CODA, Charnwood Dynamics, UK). Previous studies have shown that the SHIMMER sensor and associated algorithms can successfully calculate these parameters in slow to fast walking speeds, but it has not yet been applied to running.