This letter presents a novel vibrotactile haptic system controlled by a smartphone that can be used for gait training of older adults. Compared to previous works, the system's modularity as well as its smartphone-based controller and user interface can enhance its usability and promote regular gait training of users during their daily living. Given the prevalence of reduced stride length and speed in older adults, we developed a biomechanical data-driven approach to enable improving those outcomes via modifying their underlying surrogates. A subject study was performed by recruiting 12 young participants (19–39 years) to assess the efficacy of the haptic system and our approach based on biomechanical surrogates. It was found that the participants could significantly increase their thigh and shank extensions (i.e., the surrogates) via the feedback provided by our system, and those increases resulted in higher values of their stride length and walking speed. The results provide a clear proof-of-concept for the developed biomechanics-driven haptic system for gait training of older adults to potentially improve their mobility and living independence.

中文翻译：

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基于智能手机的步态训练触觉反馈系统的设计和验证

这封信展示了一种由智能手机控制的新型振动触觉系统，可用于老年人的步态训练。与之前的作品相比，该系统的模块化以及基于智能手机的控制器和用户界面可以增强其可用性并促进用户在日常生活中的定期步态训练。鉴于老年人步幅和速度普遍减少，我们开发了一种生物力学数据驱动的方法，通过修改潜在的替代物来改善这些结果。一项主题研究通过招募 12 名年轻参与者（19-39 岁）来评估触觉系统的功效和我们基于生物力学替代物的方法。结果发现，参与者可以显着增加大腿和小腿的伸展（即，代理）通过我们系统提供的反馈，这些增加导致他们的步幅和步行速度的值更高。结果为开发的生物力学驱动的触觉系统提供了明确的概念验证，用于老年人步态训练，以潜在地提高他们的活动能力和生活独立性。