Graduate Seminar Series: Clinical Stream – Anchana Kuganesan

Graduate Seminar Series: Clinical Stream
Graduate Seminar Series for the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (BME). This day is for clinical stream presenters.
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Presentation Title: Minimizing Pedestrian Falls on Outdoor Walkways: Minimum Foot Clearance Estimation (MFCE) System
Abstract:
Falls are the most common cause of injury in seniors with one in three Canadian adults aged 65 years and older experiencing a fall at least once annually . Many outdoor fall-related injuries on sidewalks are caused by tripping that occurs when an individual fails to adjust their gait while negotiating obstacles and raised surfaces . An important indicator of the risk of tripping is an individual’s minimum foot clearance (MFC) . MFC refers to the instant in the swing phase of the gait cycle when the foot is closest to ground . As an individual gets older, their mean MFC value also decreases putting them at increased risk for falls. 13% of adults in the risk population have MFC values below 6 mm yet many jurisdictions allow level changes up to 13 mm . The existing literature on MFC values are based on measurements done in the laboratory environment, which is known to result in overestimates of 6.5–16.2% compared to real-world settings . In order to address the need for real-world MFC measurements, new and more efficient approaches for measuring MFC are needed. Our team has recently developed the Minimum Foot Clearance Estimation (MFCE) system . The data collection module is designed to be positioned at ground level next to a walkway to efficiently collect sagittal plane videos of many pedestrians’ feet and lower legs. It consists of two video cameras (Z CAM E2) and two calibrated parallel laser beams (Galileo pro, 5 mW, Laserglow Technologies) positioned within the field of view of the video cameras such that they are projected onto the pedestrian’s lower leg. The videos recorded by the camera are used to track the foot trajectory of the pedestrian with an open-source software package and extract the MFC value. The known distance between the two laser beams is used to define a scale on the video image so that foot clearance distances measured in pixels on the video image can be converted to distances in millimeters. The video data collected is then processed offline using a computer vision algorithm for automatically estimating MFC values. The objective of the current project is to use the MFCE system to estimate the distribution of MFC values for the population by estimating, collecting, and analyzing foot clearance estimates from pedestrians on outdoor walkways. Data collection locations will include walkways that are level, sloped, and locations with existing level changes of differing sizes. The resulting estimated MFC values from this analysis will be plotted in a set of histograms defining the MFC distribution for pedestrians that will be used to determine the extent to which individuals adjust their foot clearances in each of the conditions evaluated. This foot clearance distribution data will contribute to developing evidence-based guidelines for outdoor walkway design and maintenance and inform other strategies for minimizing the risk of trip-related falls on outdoor walkways.
References
Pearson C, Geran L, St-Arnaud J. Understanding seniors’ risk of falling and their perception of risk. Statistics Canada; 2014 Oct.
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Graci V, Elliott DB, Buckley JG. Peripheral visual cues affect minimum-foot-clearance during overground locomotion. Gait & posture. 2009 Oct 1;30(3):370-4.
Toronto CO. Accessibility Design Guidelines. Diversity Management and Community Engagement Corporate Policy/Healthy City Office. 2004.
Best R, Begg R. A method for calculating the probability of tripping while walking. Journal of biomechanics. 2008 Jan 1;41(5):1147-51.
Scanlon JM. Comparing Gait between Outdoors and Inside a Laboratory (Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Tech).
Barrett RS, Mills PM, Begg RK. A systematic review of the effect of ageing and falls history on minimum foot clearance characteristics during level walking. Gait & posture. 2010 Oct 1;32(4):429-35.
Supervisor Name: Dr.Tilak Dutta
Year of Study: 2
Program of Study: MASc
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89610372821?pwd=azd4SCtYVWtreVovaGNPV1c2NGY2Zz09
Meeting ID: 896 1037 2821
Password: 483329
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