Combining Different Wearable Devices to Assess Gait Speed in Real-World Settings

• DOI: 10.3390/s24103205
• Publication Date: 2024-05-17T16:02:23Z
• Authors: Michele Zanoletti; Pasquale Bufano; Francesco Bossi; Francesco Di Rienzo; Carlotta Marinai; Gianluca Rho; Carlo Vallati; Nicola Carbonaro; Alberto Greco; Marco Laurino; Alessandro Tognetti
• Keywords: Wearable Technology

Assessing mobility in daily life can provide significant insights into several clinical conditions, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of wearable devices' performance gait speed estimation and explore optimal device combinations for everyday use. Using data collected from smartphones, smartwatches, smart shoes, evaluated the individual capabilities each explored their synergistic effects when combined, thereby accommodating preferences possibilities individuals wearing different types devices. Our study involved 20 healthy subjects performing modified Six-Minute Walking Test (6MWT) under various conditions. The results revealed only little differences among devices, with combination smartwatches shoes exhibiting superior accuracy. Particularly, captured additional health-related information demonstrated enhanced accuracy paired other Surprisingly, all devices concurrently did not yield results, suggesting potential redundancy feature extraction. Feature importance highlighted key variables contributing to estimation, providing valuable model refinement.