Moving Kinect-Based Gait Analysis with Increased Range

There are several systems that use one or several Kinect sensors for human gait analysis, particularly for diagnosis of patients. However, due to the limited depth sensing range of the Kinect-a sensor manufactured for video gaming-the depth measurement accuracy reduces with distance from the Kinect. In addition, self-occlusion of the subject limits the accuracy and utility of such systems. We overcome these limitations by using a two-Kinect gait analysis system and mechanically moving the Kinects in synchronization with the test subject and each other. This increases the practical measurement range of the Kinect-based system whilst maintaining the measurement accuracy. Results of the comparison of knee flexion, step length, and stride length with a software based method show that our moving Kinect system can accurately analyse these gait parameters.