Detection of Gait Events Using Ear-Worn IMUs During Functional Movement Tasks

Fawden, Terry; Roberts, Iwan Vaughan; Goldin, Sarah; Sharma, Yash; Dunne, Henry; Stone, Thomas; Bance, Manohar

doi:10.3390/s25123629

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Open AccessArticle

Detection of Gait Events Using Ear-Worn IMUs During Functional Movement Tasks

by

Terry Fawden

^1,*

,

Iwan Vaughan Roberts

¹

,

Sarah Goldin

²,

Yash Sharma

¹,

Henry Dunne

^1,3

,

Thomas Stone

³

and

Manohar Bance

^1,3

¹

Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK

²

Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK

³

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sensors 2025, 25(12), 3629; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25123629 (registering DOI)

Submission received: 1 May 2025 / Revised: 5 June 2025 / Accepted: 7 June 2025 / Published: 9 June 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wearable Inertial and EMG Sensors for Movement Quality Analysis in Sports Science and Rehabilitation)

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Abstract

Complex walking tasks such as turning or walking with head movements are frequently used to assess dysfunction in an individual’s vestibular, nervous and musculoskeletal systems. Compared to other methods, wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) allow quantitative analysis of these tasks in less restricted settings, allowing for a more scalable clinical measurement tool with better ecological validity. This study investigates the use of ear-worn IMUs to identify gait events during complex walking tasks, having collected data on 68 participants with a diverse range of ages and movement-related conditions. The performance of an existing gait event detection algorithm was compared with a new one designed to be more robust to lateral head movements. Our analysis suggests that while both algorithms achieve high initial contact sensitivity across all walking tasks, our new algorithm attains higher terminal contact sensitivity for turning and walking with horizontal head turns, resulting in more accurate estimates of stance and swing times. This provides scope to enable more detailed assessment of complex walking tasks during clinical testing and in daily life settings.

Keywords: earables; gait event detection; inertial sensor; temporal parameters

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MDPI and ACS Style

Fawden, T.; Roberts, I.V.; Goldin, S.; Sharma, Y.; Dunne, H.; Stone, T.; Bance, M. Detection of Gait Events Using Ear-Worn IMUs During Functional Movement Tasks. Sensors 2025, 25, 3629. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25123629

AMA Style

Fawden T, Roberts IV, Goldin S, Sharma Y, Dunne H, Stone T, Bance M. Detection of Gait Events Using Ear-Worn IMUs During Functional Movement Tasks. Sensors. 2025; 25(12):3629. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25123629

Chicago/Turabian Style

Fawden, Terry, Iwan Vaughan Roberts, Sarah Goldin, Yash Sharma, Henry Dunne, Thomas Stone, and Manohar Bance. 2025. "Detection of Gait Events Using Ear-Worn IMUs During Functional Movement Tasks" Sensors 25, no. 12: 3629. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25123629

APA Style

Fawden, T., Roberts, I. V., Goldin, S., Sharma, Y., Dunne, H., Stone, T., & Bance, M. (2025). Detection of Gait Events Using Ear-Worn IMUs During Functional Movement Tasks. Sensors, 25(12), 3629. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25123629

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Detection of Gait Events Using Ear-Worn IMUs During Functional Movement Tasks

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