Method for characterising a gait

A method for characterizing gait comprising steps of:

• receiving, by one or more processors, a target motion signal previously acquired from a target subject, wherein the target motion signal is representative of a motion of a foot of the target subject;
• comparing, by the one or more processors, at least one portion of the target motion signal with a plurality of reference signals,
• wherein at least one of the plurality of reference signals is compared to several portions temporally shifted relative to each other of the target motion signal, so as to produce a sequence of similarity coefficients ordered according to time positions of the several portions of the target motion signal,
• wherein each of the similarity coefficients is representative of a similarity probability between the target motion signal and said at least one signal of the plurality of reference signals,
• wherein the plurality of reference signals comprises:
• at least one motion signal previously acquired from a reference subject afflicted by a gait disorder, and
• at least one motion signal acquired from a healthy reference subject;
• selecting, by the one or more processors, at least one local maximum value in the sequence of similarity coefficients;
• selecting, by the one or more processors, data in the at least one of the plurality of reference signals, wherein the data is associated with the at least one local maximum value, and wherein the data comprises at least one of two predetermined marker instant characteristics of a step;
• identifying, by the one or more processors, at least one of two marker instant characteristics of a step of the target subject in the target motion signal, using the selected data;
• and
• outputting, by the one or more processors to a user, the identified at least one of two marker instant characteristics to be used in diagnosis or prognosis of gait disorder.