DETECTION OF FOOT CONTACT AND TOEIOFF USING KINEMATIC DATA FOR TREADMILL RUNNING OVER A WIDE RANGE OF SPEEDS

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to propose a method for simply and accurately detecting the foot contact and toe-off events during treadmill running over a wide range of speeds and to examine the validity and accuracy of the method. Three patterns of foot-strike were distinguished from the foot kinematic data. The thresholds for foot contact and toe-off were determined inductively based on the minimum height of the heel or metatarsal for each foot-strike pattern with regard to running speed. The estimate for foot contact and toe off indicates that this method can apply over a wide range of speeds with high accuracy.