A novel method for in-home Gait Speed estimation in Health Monitoring Using Bluetooth Low Energy

Abstract

Gait speed (GS) is a crucial parameter in the evolution and diagnosis of degenerative illnesses. Nowadays, it is measured in clinical environments where it is impossible to keep track of all patients due to the lack of resources. The development of GS measurement systems for in-home environments could solve this problem, but current methods present, at least, one of these problems: they require expensive hardware, are intrusive for the patient, or are imprecise. A novel method to measure GS in these scenarios using Bluetooth Low Energy and smart wearable devices is proposed in this work. The proposed system is inexpensive, non-intrusive, and its precision is comparable to the current state of the art methods. This system could be commercialized as part of an in-home health monitoring system.