Method and system for assessing human movements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for assessing a risk of falling based on gaits of a human user, the method comprising:

• obtaining acceleration data associated with a walking or running motion of the human user, wherein obtaining the acceleration data comprises determining a sampling rate of the motion sensor based on a stride frequency of the walking or running motion wherein the acceleration data is collected by a motion sensor attached to a belt at a location directly behind a lumbosacral joint of the human user and comprises three components corresponding to three spatially orthogonal directions, and wherein the motion sensor is coupled to the computer via a wired or wireless link;
• applying one or more filters to remove sensor noise and the stride frequency from the acceleration data;
• for each orthogonal direction of the three spatially orthogonal directions, determining an amount of oscillatory energy included in the walking or running motion in the orthogonal direction based on a corresponding acceleration component, wherein determining the amount of oscillatory energy comprises performing frequency-domain analysis on the acceleration data and removing a fundamental frequency component to remove non-oscillatory energy included in the walking or running motion;
• and
• for at least one orthogonal direction of the three spatially orthogonal directions, obtaining an energy fraction factor by computing a ratio between the amount of the oscillatory energy in the at least one orthogonal direction and a total amount of the oscillator energy;
• generating one or more gait-analysis results based on the energy fraction factor associated with each orthogonal direction, wherein the gait-analysis results comprise at least a stability factor and a symmetry index associated with the human user's gaits;
• and
• configuring a graphic user interface (GUI) to display the gait-analysis results to the human user, wherein the GUI comprises at least a first region for displaying the symmetry index and a second region for displaying the energy fraction factor corresponding to each orthogonal direction, and wherein the energy fraction factor corresponding to a vertical direction indicates the risk of falling associated with the human user.