TRACE: TRACKING RELATIONAL AXES AND COMPARATIVE EVALUATION

Abstract

Autism is one of the developmental disorders which make major behavioral and communication changes in the individual and induce a major drawback in the walking pattern. The main aim of this study is to analyze and compare the stride patterns of an autistic patient and a healthy individual. With the help of the proposed device, the yaw, pitch and roll of the limbs can be easily measured and analyzed. These parameters will identify the lacking movement patterns and help the physiotherapists in improving the walking pattern of the autistic patients by adopting the correct approach of remedial actions/treatment. It can also be used by the people who have undergone hip replacements or knee replacements and have an abnormal gait pattern. This device is a simple accumulation of sensors and memory storage unit. Two gyroscope sensors have been used, one each for the knee and the ankle. These sensors are strapped onto the knee and ankle with the help of free-sized elastic bands. The data received by the sensors are stored in the storage device automatically and are evaluated in a specially designed Web application. However, the raw data from the gyroscope sensors have not been used directly and various filters have been used to remove the errors. The results have been compared between an autistic patient and a normal healthy subject and showed a higher degree of angle difference for the autistic patient than the normal individual.