It is well known that human health complications can be detected by measuring the rate of breathing, the temperature of the body, and pulse. A new research has revealed another vital sign to detect a complexity in the human health, i.e. walking speed using WiGait. With the speed of walking, health issues such as falls, cognitive decline, and certain cardiac or pulmonary diseases can be predicted.
According to Phys.org, Professor Dina Katabi from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has worked with a team of scientists to develop a new device, WiGait, which can accurately monitor walking speed in a way which is both continuous and unobtrusive. The device can monitor the walking speed of humans through wireless signals.
WiGait can measure the walking speed of multiple people and the accuracy rate will be between 95 to 99 percent. Katabi and her team presented a device to the United States former president Obama in the year 2015 and WiGait are said to be the updated version of the device. The gadget can be set on the wall of any house as its size equivalent to any small painting.
As written in Massachusetts Institute of Technology News, WiGait will be able to measure the walking speed of any person, without requiring the person wear any type of device. The device measures the speed by surrounding the wireless signals and the reflection of those signals from the person's body. It will be very helpful in revealing a wealth of important health information for any person.
If there is a change in the walking speed of any person such as for the elder people, it means there can be an injury caused to that person or the person is at increased risk of falling. Most hospitalizations cause due to problems such as falls, congestive heart disease or any type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and using WiGait will help in predicting this type of health issue and could improve healthcare costs.
