International Journal of Computer Science Issues

More than a traditional journal...

In this paper, we present a study of stride variations and their dependency on human physical parameters and dynamics. We concentrated on the stride to stride intervals on 50 different subjects. The effects of age, height, weight, length of legs and the speed of walking are researched and analyzed against the stride time variations for each subject. It can happen that a subject during the initial and end stages of walking, display some non-uniform stride movements. So, in order to achieve a stable data for analysis, the initial and final samples of stride are truncated. It is understood that the variations in stride at consecutive steps denote instability in walking, which is considered as abnormal in case in adults. In case of children these studies help in assessing the progress in the stability of stride movements as the age progresses. The result of this study can be applied to enhance progress in stride stability by providing adequate feedback to the individuals. For example, for a young person, the analysis of weight against his stride stability may be used to help him control his food or to automatically adjust treadmill speed in Gymnasium. For a child this analysis may be used to anticipate/predict his stride stability in future and provide proper training to improve the irregular patterns according to the feedback. The first and second harmonics of the stride variations are considered for the analysis. The mean and standard deviation of these harmonics are calculated in time domain as well as frequency domain and are used in presentation of parameters. The mean values are analyzed against the age, height, weight and speed of all the subjects. The information contained in the spectral components of stride cycle and their correspondence with the physical parameters, are demonstrated with the help of different plots and parameters.