The Uses for Footware in Performance Analysis

Gait analysis, in essence, is a life science that circles around the generation and interpretation of human locomotion. Its uses are extensive; encompassing clinical pathology (disease), general and special research projects, and implementation based on the findings. Also included are performance analysis studies for various sports, biomechanical research, gait rehabilitation plus posture, balance, motor control issues and a lot more. This discipline is used in performance centers, research labs, universities, doctor's offices and other institutions around the world.

Limitations of the Current Technology
The methodologies of today are limited in at least three ways: one, there is a lack of shared standards amongst professionals and institutions; two, the core analytic system (high-speed cameras, control track, pressure plate and landmark classifiers) has inherent limits imposed by the capture devices that puts some distance between the observer and subject; three, the data is always clinical because no real-world situation is ever duplicated in the layout of a lab.

In the various institutions around the world are researchers and clinicians with many differences in their set-up protocols and policies, and these will influence how they model and analyze the whole of the data being generated. The lack of standardization draws from small methodological differences that grow in significance when correlating research; the numbers relevant to one lab's understanding are different enough from another's that they will not compare. It is the observations of the scientist, their subjective viewpoints, that are most often used to make sense of the data, so again, it is difficult to cross-reference their data points as different people, in different labs and schools, are getting a variety of recognized patterns from their equipment. It is not a new set of standards that are needed for laboratories to communicate; going beyond the exchange of interpretations is a type of equipment that can be placed very close to the subject. We believe our footware can fill a need here.

The data derived from the core system can be highly informative, but the protocols involved with its acquisition leaves a lot of room for creating false significance. With the use of photography, and the placement of markers on the body's landmark areas, there is a lessening of the ability to produce consistent work. As simple as the placement of markers are, different labs will often be interpreting what is required and, even at the single lab level, there are requirements for supervision, else there would hardly be consistency even here. Because it is known that these tools will always need clinical observations that are coupled with software interpretations, the individual lab can hardly be informed, in a practical sense, on the work of another.

In terms of studying human movement in some real life situations, the current methods, again, are a hindrence due to their core medium of data generation. Even when a system is brought out of the lab and onto the field, track or court, there is still a fairly elaborate set-up, which brings emphasis to the artifice in the setting, rather than the situation and conditions that prevail in the real world. There is a need for an accurate system of measurement and analysis that is just as flexible as the movements of a client or athlete, whatever they do. Whether for clinical, research or educational reasons, there is a call for a system that is capable of capturing motion in any environment -- with a minimum of set-up.

On the Question of Approach
With the introduction of analytical software that can work with footware there is a new level for scientific notation. New relationships between an individual and their shoes will help produce the numbers that a professional finds useful. In just this way the First Person Network will provide benefits in every area of gait analysis. Each improvement has its own set of advantages:

• One, standardization is possible when the shoe itself is standardized. In other words, when every element of a given shoe has a distinctive number, available for registration, the components that are reflecting the movements of a person can be seen to 'deconstruct' their stride. The opportunity is here for software development that the professional can use. When using consistent number-strings, the clinician, for one, will have a variety of ways to find the regularities needed when they are interpreting someone's stride, and the irregularities too, of course. During this stage of our development process, input from the field will be invaluable.
• Two, the data that is drawn from the use of footware can be viewed as coming from an instrument. There is a new interface that creates almost boundless possibilities for pattern recognition by way of its mechanical and fluid-like architecture -- which is due to discrete structures within each shoe that can be actively monitored. Most all this information is physiological in origin: basically the footware is taking-the-measure of our biomechanical nature whenever we move about in them. With the new First Person Network there is no distance between the subject and the acquiring tool (distance that is too often interpreted in a variety of ways due to the lab). The new systems will allow for observations and explanations that come from a technically direct approach, with much of the forthcoming analysis and results available on the screen of a handheld device.
• Three, the analysis can be carried out in a variety of environments, without the lab set-up. The First Person Network, comprised of the footware connected to the handheld through software, enables one to generate, document and analyze the characteristics of an individual's stride in a given environment. Essentially, you take the lab with you, allowing for performance to play out in real world conditions. By use of footware there is an increase in the whole operational reach of gait analysis. Examples of this might be seen in tracks, courts, fields, trails, sand pits -- or any other place that an organized activity is needing to be looked at.

Whether it is used to understand the gait cycle of a child, the running action of an Olympic athlete, or to capture the balancing moves of a hockey player, our proposed First Person Network will be a first step in providing the solution. If it were possible to place an array of sensors in our shoes, that would have the capabilities we describe in these pages, some enterprise would have done so -- well before now. Currently though, the structure of shoes do not allow for information or data acquisition. If an individual was better informed on the nature of the ground underfoot, and their response to it, the shoe would be doing a better job than any of them are capable of right now -- and if there was a new lot of data that could be interpreted, the shoe would be filling a great many other needs -- a few of them mentioned here. With the adapting shoe, footware, the paradigm for what a shoe actually is will be changing.

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