This study investigated the accuracy and reliability of four methods using force-plate data for detecting the swing heel-off (HO) time in gait initiation. Results of these methods were compared to those obtained by means of a reference method using a footswitch. Ten young healthy adults performed 18 forward gait initiation trials at self-selected speed and at maximal speed. Results showed that ...

In many simple walking models, foot placement dictates the center of pressure location and ground reaction force components, whereas humans can modulate these aspects after foot contact. Because of the differences, it is unclear to what extent predictions made by models are valid for human walking. Yet, both model simulations and human experimental data have previously indicated that the center...

In two experiments participants were asked to walk inside the city Hradec Králové along a track, which consisted of streets with various amounts of vegetation and various degrees of traffic intensity. The walking speed was measured in eight selected sections. The environmental properties of the sections were estimated by raters, who described a level of naturalness of a place, intensity of traf...

BACKGROUND There is limited knowledge regarding to what extent the older population meet the recommendations of physical exercise, especially fitness-enhancing exercise. This study assessed participation in health- and fitness-enhancing exercises in people aged >65, and explored to what extent the possible differences in meeting current recommendations differs by age, gender and education. ME...

When people walk together in groups or crowds they must coordinate their walking speed and direction with their neighbors. This paper investigates how a pedestrian visually controls speed when following a leader on a straight path (one-dimensional following). To model the behavioral dynamics of following, participants in Experiment 1 walked behind a confederate who randomly increased or decreas...

A longitudinal follow-up study of 10 normally developing children was performed in order to identify changes in mechanical control of gait during the first months after initiation of independent walking. Changes in spatio-temporal parameters and kinematics were recorded (336 trials spread over 83 recording sessions) and linked to kinetic features of gait. At the onset of independent walking, al...

This study aimed to clarify the relationships between loads and gait changes and among gait parameters while walking with various loads. Fifteen healthy young male adults (mean age: 22.1+/-1.6 years) walked with four kinds of loads based on each subject's body mass (0, 20, 40, and 60% of body mass: BM) on his back. Walking speed, cadence, stance time, swing time, double support time, step lengt...

Determination was made of step length, stride width, time factors and deviation in the center of pressure during up- and downslope walking in 17 healthy men between the ages of 19 and 34 using a force plate. Slope inclinations were set at 3, 6, 9 and 12 degrees. At 12 degrees, walking speed, the product of step length and cadence, decreased significantly (p less than 0.01) in both up- and downs...

A rapid, precise and automated means for the regular inspection and maintenance of a large number of tunnels is needed. Based on the depth study of the tunnel monitoring method, the CNU-TS-1 mobile tunnel monitoring system (TS1) is developed and presented. It can efficiently obtain the cross-sections that are orthogonal to the tunnel in a dynamic way, and the control measurements that depend on...

In daily life, people seldom walk at exactly constant speeds. Most walking over a day is performed in short bouts [1]. Thus, it is of interest to measure the cost of changing speed. Minetti and co-workers [3] measured the cost of changing speeds but with non-inertial treadmill speed changes or stepfrequency control. Here, we measure the metabolic cost of changing speeds to better quantify the r...