Gaitprints as Predictors of Disease and Disability for Effective Rehabilitation Engineering

经过几十年的人体运动研究，人类步态仍有许多未知之处。最具挑战性和耐人寻味的未知问题之一与以下基本研究问题有关：是否存在与人类步态相关的特征，就像指纹一样，这些特征对每个人来说都是独一无二的？这个项目通过关注这样一个事实来揭示这个问题，即尽管人类采取的两个步骤相似，但没有两个步骤是完全相同的。人类行走展示的这种自然的可变性特征可以揭示关于人类福祉的关键信息。此外，在步态可变性的视角下研究人体步态特征的独特性，可以用来预测疾病和生理衰退，提高康复水平。通过这个项目获得的知识将被纳入大学课程课程，并将为K-12学生提供暑期实习职位，以便学生为未来的STEM本科学习获得重要技能。该项目的主要目标是调查每个人是否像每个人都有独特的指纹一样，表现出独特的“脚印”(即每个人的步态表现出独特的特征/属性)。将通过一系列不同环境下(室内和室外)的生物力学实验来探索和识别可能构成步态指纹的特征，其中步态数据将从健康人群和有疾病和残疾的人群中收集研究参与者的数据。收集的数据将通过新技术进行统计分析，并将调查与脚印唯一性和持久性相关的属性的存在。这个项目的变革性在于它将重点放在人类步态变异模式上，将其作为研究脚印存在的关键因素。通过跨学科研究团队的参与，该项目有望产生基础知识，使脚印能够作为衰老和病理学的潜在预测指标。该项目由残疾和康复工程(DARE)计划和既定的激励竞争性研究计划(EPSCoR)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

After decades of human movement research, there are still many unknowns about human gait. One of the most challenging and intriguing unknowns is related to the following fundamental research question: are there characteristics as­sociated with human gait that are unique to each individual in the same manner as fingerprints? This project sheds light into this question by focusing on the fact that, despite being similar, no two steps that humans take are identical. This natural feature of variability that human walking exhibits can reveal critical information about human well-being. In addition, the investigation of the uniqueness of human gait characteristics under the lens of gait variability can be utilized to predict disease and physiological decline and improve rehabilitation. The knowledge gained through this project will be incorporated into university course curriculum and summer internship positions will be made available for K-12 students, so that students acquire vital skills for their prospective undergraduate studies in STEM.The main goal of this project is to investigate whether each individual exhibits a unique “gaitprint” (i.e., each individual’s gait exhibits unique characteristics/properties) in the same fashion that each individual has unique fingerprints. The characteristics that may constitute a gaitprint will be explored and identified through a series of biomechanical experiments under different settings (indoors and outdoors), where gait data will be collected from research participants that belong to both healthy populations and populations with disease and disability. The collected data will be statistically analyzed through novel techniques and the existence of properties related to gaitprint uniqueness and persistence will be investigated. The transformative nature of this project lies in its focus on human gait variability patterns as the key element for the investigation of the gaitprint existence. Through the involvement of an interdisciplinary team of investigators, this project is expected to result in fundamental knowledge that will enable the use of gaitprints as a potential predictor of aging and pathology.This project is jointly funded by the Disability and Rehabilitation Engineering (DARE) Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.