Use of Vibrotactile Bracelets to Study Effects of Arm Swing Variation on Overground Gait

The high portability of vibrotactile feedback systems makes them suited to wearable applications, which improves their usability for rehabilitation applications encompassing a variety of environments and scenarios. A number of works have explored the relationship between arm movement and gait parameters such as gait variations and age on the arm swing. However, the inter-limb coupling scheme, i.e. the effects of the specific side (left or right) and direction (forward or backward) of arm swing variation on gait and balance parameters have not yet been evaluated. The study of these effects can enable us to devise arm movement based gait training protocols that may be beneficial for stroke survivors. We have developed a vibrotactile biofeedback system worn on the upper limb for post-stroke gait rehabilitation training. Using this system, we have carried out a study with ten healthy subjects and one stroke survivor to determine the effects of arm swing variation on gait and balance parameters. The healthy subject experiments revealed that increase in arm swing significantly increases the stride length while bringing about a statistically non-significant increase in the gait velocity. The study also revealed that the protocols involving variation of forward arm swing appear to have greater efficacy in modifying the gait symmetry ratio. Furthermore, the variations in arm swing and the resulting gait modifications do not produce any significant difference in the balance parameters. The results from the pilot test with one stroke survivor also show that increasing the arm swing increases the stride length and velocity. These findings suggest that arm swing variation using vibrotactile bracelets has effects on gait parameters that may be utilized for gait training of stroke survivors.