Development of Measurement System for Task Oriented Step Tracking Using Laser Range Finder

Avoiding falls require fast and appropriate step responses, which has been assessed by only stepping speed as an indicator of fall risk in older adults. We develop a new measurement system that applies a laser range finder for convenient assessment of stepping performance including temporal and spatial parameters such as reaction time, step velocity, step length, and accuracy. The measurement system for step tracking has a large advantage in terms of portability, cost, and the number of temporal and spatial parameters that we can measure. The aim of this study is to verify an efficacy of the measurement system for step tracking. We developed the system that applied a laser range finder for convenient assessment of stepping performance. In the test using a force platform and the developed measurement system simultaneously, based on reliability and validity, its effectiveness is confirmed.