Smartphone Gait Analysis App Validated Against Pressure Walkway in Healthy Adults

In a validation study evaluating healthy adults, researchers found that temporal gait measurements from Gaitly, a novel mobile smartphone video-based gait analysis application, yielded an absolute error of 5% or less and an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.88 or greater across both step/stride and participant-mean comparisons, with the exception of swing time. The investigation tested the mobile application directly against the GAITRite pressure-sensitive walkway system to determine the accuracy and reliability of step/stride level and participant-mean level gait metrics.

For spatial measurements evaluated at the participant mean level, comparisons between the smartphone application and the pressure-sensitive walkway demonstrated an absolute error below 2% alongside an ICC of 0.9 or greater. The authors noted that despite technological advancements, a clinically appropriate gait assessment tool had yet to be developed, emphasizing that such clinical instrumentation needs to be affordable, portable, easy to use, and able to provide accurate, reliable gait metrics.

Conducted as an initial step to address this need, the study concluded that the Gaitly application offers an innovative, cost-effective gait analysis system that could be used in rural and urban settings.

Subject of Research: Validation of a smartphone video-based gait analysis application against a pressure-sensitive walkway

Article Title: Individual step and participant mean validation of Gaitly's smartphone video-based gait analysis system

Article References: von Hacht, M. W., Sheikhi, M., Sehgal, B., Truong, T., Kirby, D., Morrison, A. J., & Hundza, S. R. (2026). Individual step and participant mean validation of Gaitly's smartphone video-based gait analysis system. Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, 7, Article 1950206. https://doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2026.1950206

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fresc.2026.1950206

Keywords: gait analysis, smartphone application, video-based analysis, validation study, GAITRite walkway, healthy adults, temporal gait metrics, spatial gait metrics, Individual, step, participant, mean