Gait biometrics is a relatively new domain, and it will revolutionize the world’s approach to medicine and diagnosis. Research into the walking patterns of an individual via gait biometrics yields reliable information about their physical health, mental state, and even conditions related to the nerves in the human body. This paper discusses several ways that gait biometrics contributes to the unfolding progress made in medical research and clinical practice.
Early Detection of Neurological Disorders
Gait biometrics appears to be a great tool for the early detection of neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and stroke. A very slight change in gait patterns at clinical detection, when these conditions become worse, can be detected. For example, it has been shown that gait biometrics could detect changes such as stride length, step width, and velocity years before the motor symptoms that characterize Parkinson’s. This can be used for an earlier onset of intervention, hence a delay in disease progression.
Monitoring Disease Progression
Gait biometrics can also be used to monitor the progression of neurological diseases. Tracking changes in gait parameters over time will provide an idea about the efficacy of treatments and interventions. For example, in patients with Parkinson’s disease, gait biometrics may be useful to monitor the disease progression of motor symptoms, as well as the treatment efficacy of medication or physical therapy. Similarly, in the case of stroke patients, gait biometrics can be used to measure recovery of walking ability and to identify any function limitation.
Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy
Gait biometrics are of great importance in rehabilitation and physical therapy, as a minute gait pattern analysis provides an opportunity to identify specific weaknesses or dysfunctions for each patient. Gait analysis can easily identify imbalances of strength, coordination, or range of motion, and all that information can be used to make the exercises and interventions in physical therapy that are directed toward meeting the needs of a patient. Further, gait biometrics would enable one to track the progress of a patient through the rehabilitation periods and discern at what point he or she is ready to return to activities.
Assessing Musculoskeletal Injuries
Gait biometrics enables clinicians to assess the degree and recovery level of musculoskeletal injuries, such as sprains, strains, and fractures. It further enables clinicians to monitor the effect of treatment and rehabilitation through a comparison between the gait of a patient before an injury and after an injury. In addition, gait analysis can establish whether the injury has biomechanically based reasons or if the grounds for its persistence are biomechanically based. As such, considering these aspects enhances the formulation of a more geared and effective rehabilitation plan for such patients by the clinicians.
Detecting Mental Health Conditions
Recent research studies established that gait biometrics can be employed to detect mental health disorders like depression and anxiety. Such abnormal gait patterns may include a slower walk or reduced stride length and have been associated with the condition. Moreover, gait biometrics may be able to differentiate between the types of depression or anxiety, and therefore it can inform decisions on the proper treatment. Moreover, gait analysis can also be used to monitor the effectiveness of mental health treatments and appraise how a patient reacts to therapy.
Enhancing Sports Performance
In addition to that, gait biometrics is used for sports performance. The gait patterns of athletes can be analyzed to find their weaknesses and accordingly optimize the training regimens. Gait analysis can identify the biomechanical inefficiencies that are sources of injuries or bottlenecks in performance, and targeted training to address such issues optimizes the performance of athletes while minimizing injury risks. Another application is the possibility of monitoring progress during the season, checking for evidence of overtraining or fatigue, and using gait biometrics.
The Future of Gait Biometrics
Advances in technology will continue to widen the realm of possibilities for applications related to gait biometrics. Possible future developments might involve the integration of gait analysis into wearable devices, virtual reality, and applications for artificial intelligence. Conversely, precision and personalization in medical assessments and treatments will continue toward unprecedented heights.
More applications of gait biometrics are also integrated with other biometric technologies, such as face recognition or iris scanning, to build a more robust and secure identification system. The final breakthroughs in the algorithms of machine learning and deep learning may make gait biometrics much more accurate in identifying and analyzing gait patterns. As research moves forward, we will see many more innovative applications of gait biometrics in the future.
Wrapping It Up
One of the most interesting areas of future research is that of wearable devices able to monitor gait patterns continuously in real time. This will allow a person to track his/her health and fitness data and seek medical attention when some abnormalities occur. Advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning may also go further in creating more precise and efficient algorithms for the analysis of gait patterns. It will unlock full benefits from gait biometrics and improve the life quality of thousands of people by merely combining these technologies.
