Gait analysis is the process of quantification and interpretation of human locomotion. Pathological gait may reflect compensations for underlying pathologies, or be responsible for causation of symptoms in itself. The study of gait analysis allows these diagnoses to be made, as well as permitting future developments in rehabilitation engineering. Aside from clinical applications, gait analysis is widely used in professional sports training to optimise and improve athletic performance. In a general sense, locomotion simply means active movement or travel, applying not just to biological individuals. ...

History

With the development of photography, it became possible to capture image sequences which reveal details of human and animal locomotion that are not noticeable by watching the movement with the naked eye. Edward Muybridge was a pioneer of this in the early 1900s. It was photography which first revealed the detailed sequence of the horse "gallop" gait, which is usually mis-represented in paintings made prior to this discovery, for example. Jump to: navigation, search Lens and mounting of a large format camera Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. ... // Events and Trends Technology Lawrence Hargrave makes the first stable wing design for a heavier-than-air aircraft Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first documented flight in a powered heavier-than-air aircraft Mass production of automobile Wide popularity of home phonograph Panama Canal is built by the United... Horse gaits are the different methods by which a horse, either naturally or through human training, moves itself. ...

Although much early research was done using film cameras, the widespread application of gait analysis to humans with pathological conditions such as cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, and neuromuscular disorders, began in the 1970s with the availability of video camerasystems which could produce detailed studies of individual patients within realistic cost and time constraints. The development of treatment regimes, often involving orthopaedic surgery, based on gait analysis results, advanced significantly in the 1980s. Many leading orthopaedic hospitals worldwide now have gait labs which are routinely used in large numbers of cases, both to design treatment plans, and for follow-up monitoring. The Eyemo spyder model 71QM in action, fitted with a metal accessory on the camera door. ... Jump to: navigation, search Cerebral palsy or CP is a group of permanent disorders associated with developmental brain injuries that occur during fetal development, birth, or shortly after birth. ... Jump to: navigation, search The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ... A video camera can be classified two ways: Professional video cameras, such as those used in television production Camcorders used by amateurs This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics (BE: orthopaedics) is the branch of surgery concerned with acute, chronic, traumatic and recurrent injuries and other disorders of the locomotor system, its musclular and bone parts. ... A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ...

The forefathers of this research are Murali Kadaba, HK Ramakrishnan, and Mary Wootten. Their main papers, dealing with Euler Angles, led to the development of a marker system. This marker system is the predecessor of modern marker systems, such as the ones used in movies.

Equipment and techniques

A modern gait lab has several (five or more) video cameras placed around the walkway, which are linked to a computer. The patient has markers applied to anatomical landmark points, which are mostly palpable bony landmarks such as the iliac spines of the pelvis, the malleoli of the ankle, and the condyles of the knee. The patient walks down the walkway and the computer calculates the trajectory of each marker in three dimensions. A model is applied to compute the underlying motion of the bones. This gives a full breakdown of the motion at each joint. The pelvis is the bony structure located at the base of the spine (properly known as the caudal end). ... The bones in the foot In anatomy, the ankle, or ancle (a word common, in various forms, to Teutonic languages, probably connected in origin with the Latin angulus, or Greek αγκυλος, bent), is the part of the lower limb that is located between the foot and the leg, and is actually... An x-ray of a human knee In human anatomy, the knee is the leg joint connecting the femur and the tibia. ...

In addition, most labs have floor transducers (strain gauges) which measure the force between the foot and the floor, including both magnitude and direction. Adding this to the known dynamics of each body segment, enables the solution of equations based on Newton's laws of motion and enables the computer to calculate the forces exerted by each muscle group, and the net moment about each joint at every stage of the gait cycle. Some labs also use skin electrodes to detect the activity of each leg muscle. In this way, a complete mechanical description of locomotion is obtained. Deviations from normal patterns are used to diagnose specific conditions and predict the outcome of treatment. Orthopaedic surgery remains an art as much as a science and the outcome of each case still depends on the interpretation of results and the experience of the surgeon. Options for treatment of cerebral palsy include the paralysis of spastic muscles using Botox® or the lengthening, re-attachment or detachment of particular tendons. Corrections of distorted bony anatomy are also undertaken. A transducer is a device that converts one type of energy to another, or responds to a physical parameter. ... --203. ... Jump to: navigation, search Sir Isaac Newton at 46 in Godfrey Knellers 1689 portrait Sir Isaac Newton, PRS (25 December 1642 (OS) – 20 March 1727 (OS) / 4 January 1643 (NS) – 31 March 1727 (NS)) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and alchemist. ... Jump to: navigation, search Botulinum toxin, popularly sold under the brand name Botox®, is an incredibly potent neurotoxin that has found a variety of remarkable uses in modern medicine and biological warfare. ... A tendon or sinew is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. ...

Popular media

G.K. Chesterton premised one of his Father Brown mysteries, "The Queer Feet", on gait recognition. For the town of Chesterton in Cambridgeshire, see Chesterton (Cambridge). ... Father Brown is a fictional detective created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton and who stars in five volumes of in total 48 short stories, later compiled in five books. ...

External link

• An introduction to Gait Analysis