Wearable Foot Sensors Match Motion Capture For Knee Arthritis Gait

Key TakeawaysFoot-strapped sensors are as good as motion capture in tracking a person’s strideThe sensors matched motion capture readings of people with knee arthritisThe data could be used to track arthritis progression and potentially explore treatments.THURSDAY, Sept. 17, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Wearable sensors might be the key to better tracking and treating a person’s knee arthritis, a new study says.Strapped to the foot, these sensors work as well as motion capture cameras in tracking a person’s natural stride, researchers reported recently in the journal JMIR Formative Research.This stride data could be used to track how a person with knee arthritis walks, allowing doctors to track arthritis progression and potentially offer individualized therapy, researchers said."The technical agreement we saw between the foot-mounted sensors and the laboratory motion capture system was exceptionally strong," said lead researcher Dr. Charles Odonkor, an associate professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut."When it comes to measuring speed, stride length and step frequency, these wearable sensors performed on par with the expensive camera systems that require a dedicated lab space,” Odonkor said in a news release. Doctors now rely on X-rays and patient surveys to track knee arthritis, but these measurements can’t show how a person is actually moving during their day-to-day life, researchers said."Clinical evaluations in a doctor's office only give us a snapshot," Odonkor said. "We wanted to see if wearable sensors could give us a reliable, objective window into how people with knee osteoarthritis move in the real world, without a dedicated motion laboratory."For this study, researchers had 10 people with diagnosed knee arthritis and 10 healthy people wear the foot sensors while they completed three standardized walking tests in a lab equipped with motion capture cameras.These included a self-paced walking test, a fast-paced walking test and a six-minute endurance walk.Motion capture uses multiple infrared cameras to track reflective markers placed on the body. It’s considered the gold standard for movement analysis, researchers said.Results showed that data from the wearable sensors was in near-perfect agreement with data from the motion capture system, in terms of measuring a person’s walking speed, length of stride and number of steps.The sensors also detected potentially revealing differences between participants, researchers said.For example, people who were more physically active tended to walk faster and take longer strides. On the other hand, inactive people tended to spend more time with their feet flat on the ground during a step and showed distinct differences in how their feet pushed off the ground.If used to track motion among a larger group of people, these wearable sensors might reveal significant differences that could improve the monitoring and treatment of arthritis, researchers said.“While our focus was device validation, these insights into physical activity give us a glimpse of what wearable technology might achieve," Odonkor said. "We saw that sensors can pick up subtle changes in walking rhythm among less active individuals, which opens the door to tracking functional declines before they become severe clinical concerns."He said that with further validation, it could help scientists understand how the way a patient moves can change as knee osteoarthritis progress or the extent to which a patient responds to treatments like physical therapy and surgery."Wearable sensors represent a major shift in how we can study and manage musculoskeletal conditions," Odonkor concluded. "By shifting objective movement analysis out of the laboratory and into real world settings, we can eventually gain a much deeper understanding of how treatments impact daily function and long-term joint health."More informationHarvard Medical School has more on stride training for knee arthritis.SOURCE: Yale School of Medicine, news release, Sept. 14, 2026 .What This Means For YouWearable sensors might be able to help doctors track and treat knee arthritis..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Wearable Foot Sensors Match Motion Capture For Knee Arthritis Gait

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