One’s walking style can reveal a good deal of what’s going on inside our bodies. We naturally take on a gait and stride that are the most efficient and cause us least pain, so being able to analyze a walking style may help with diagnoses, rehab, and monitoring of a variety of conditions.
To that end, researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have developed a piece of software that can calculate how much energy a person expands while walking simply by relying on eight different walking metrics.
The software, which is available for free at this link, asks the user to input parameters such as walking speed, distance between feet, and how high the person lifts the feet on each step. These numbers are then used to animate an avatar of a human walking. From this avatar, the system can measure the energy used on a regular walk, as well as when the avatar is pulled or pushed at different spots, which may simulate carrying a backpack, pushing a lawnmower, or other everyday tasks.
Here’s a demo of the software simulating a few walking styles:
Study in Scientific Reports: A simple model of mechanical effects to estimate metabolic cost of human walking…
Via: EPFL…