Ear worn inertial sensors can estimate scalar kinetic gait parameters and reconstruct vertical ground reaction force curves during running

Jake Stuchbury-Wass; Josh Carter; Mathias Ciliberto; Kayla-Jade Butkow; Qiang Yang; Yang Liu; Ezio Preatoni; Dong Ma; Cecilia Mascolo

Ear worn inertial sensors can estimate scalar kinetic gait parameters and reconstruct vertical ground reaction force curves during running

Jake Stuchbury-Wass, Josh Carter, Mathias Ciliberto, Kayla-Jade Butkow, Qiang Yang, Yang Liu, Ezio Preatoni, Dong Ma, Cecilia Mascolo

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceeding › Chapter in a published conference proceeding

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Abstract

Ear-worn wearables are widely used while running for entertainment and many modern devices include inertial sensors for user interaction. We propose using earbuds equipped with inertial sensors to estimate the vertical ground reaction forces (vGRFs) from the vibrations transmitted to, and motion of the head. We devised a gait event detection and use this segmentation to train and validate a regression model to predict the vGRFs. Our results showed good agreement with the instrumented treadmill with an average MAPE of 3.97% on scalar GRF derived metrics, showing the promise of ear worn devices for detailed running gait analysis.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Abstract book of the 30th Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB)
Publisher	International Society of Biomechanics (ISB)
Number of pages	1
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 2 Apr 2025
Event	Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) - Stockholm, Sweden Duration: 27 Jul 2025 → 31 Jul 2025 Conference number: 30 https://isb2025.com/

Conference

Conference	Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB)
Country/Territory	Sweden
City	Stockholm
Period	27/07/25 → 31/07/25
Internet address	https://isb2025.com/

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Stuchbury-Wass, J., Carter, J., Ciliberto, M., Butkow, K.-J., Yang, Q., Liu, Y., Preatoni, E., Ma, D., & Mascolo, C. (2025). Ear worn inertial sensors can estimate scalar kinetic gait parameters and reconstruct vertical ground reaction force curves during running. In Abstract book of the 30th Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) International Society of Biomechanics (ISB). Advance online publication.

Ear worn inertial sensors can estimate scalar kinetic gait parameters and reconstruct vertical ground reaction force curves during running. / Stuchbury-Wass, Jake; Carter, Josh; Ciliberto, Mathias et al.
Abstract book of the 30th Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB). International Society of Biomechanics (ISB), 2025.

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceeding › Chapter in a published conference proceeding

Stuchbury-Wass, J, Carter, J, Ciliberto, M, Butkow, K-J, Yang, Q, Liu, Y, Preatoni, E, Ma, D & Mascolo, C 2025, Ear worn inertial sensors can estimate scalar kinetic gait parameters and reconstruct vertical ground reaction force curves during running. in Abstract book of the 30th Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB). International Society of Biomechanics (ISB), Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB), Stockholm, Sweden, 27/07/25.

Stuchbury-Wass J, Carter J, Ciliberto M, Butkow KJ, Yang Q, Liu Y et al. Ear worn inertial sensors can estimate scalar kinetic gait parameters and reconstruct vertical ground reaction force curves during running. In Abstract book of the 30th Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB). International Society of Biomechanics (ISB). 2025 Epub 2025 Apr 2.

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title = "Ear worn inertial sensors can estimate scalar kinetic gait parameters and reconstruct vertical ground reaction force curves during running",

abstract = "Ear-worn wearables are widely used while running for entertainment and many modern devices include inertial sensors for user interaction. We propose using earbuds equipped with inertial sensors to estimate the vertical ground reaction forces (vGRFs) from the vibrations transmitted to, and motion of the head. We devised a gait event detection and use this segmentation to train and validate a regression model to predict the vGRFs. Our results showed good agreement with the instrumented treadmill with an average MAPE of 3.97% on scalar GRF derived metrics, showing the promise of ear worn devices for detailed running gait analysis.",

author = "Jake Stuchbury-Wass and Josh Carter and Mathias Ciliberto and Kayla-Jade Butkow and Qiang Yang and Yang Liu and Ezio Preatoni and Dong Ma and Cecilia Mascolo",

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T1 - Ear worn inertial sensors can estimate scalar kinetic gait parameters and reconstruct vertical ground reaction force curves during running

AU - Stuchbury-Wass, Jake

AU - Carter, Josh

AU - Ciliberto, Mathias

AU - Butkow, Kayla-Jade

AU - Yang, Qiang

AU - Liu, Yang

AU - Preatoni, Ezio

AU - Ma, Dong

AU - Mascolo, Cecilia

N1 - Conference code: 30

PY - 2025/4/2

Y1 - 2025/4/2

N2 - Ear-worn wearables are widely used while running for entertainment and many modern devices include inertial sensors for user interaction. We propose using earbuds equipped with inertial sensors to estimate the vertical ground reaction forces (vGRFs) from the vibrations transmitted to, and motion of the head. We devised a gait event detection and use this segmentation to train and validate a regression model to predict the vGRFs. Our results showed good agreement with the instrumented treadmill with an average MAPE of 3.97% on scalar GRF derived metrics, showing the promise of ear worn devices for detailed running gait analysis.

AB - Ear-worn wearables are widely used while running for entertainment and many modern devices include inertial sensors for user interaction. We propose using earbuds equipped with inertial sensors to estimate the vertical ground reaction forces (vGRFs) from the vibrations transmitted to, and motion of the head. We devised a gait event detection and use this segmentation to train and validate a regression model to predict the vGRFs. Our results showed good agreement with the instrumented treadmill with an average MAPE of 3.97% on scalar GRF derived metrics, showing the promise of ear worn devices for detailed running gait analysis.

M3 - Chapter in a published conference proceeding

BT - Abstract book of the 30th Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB)

PB - International Society of Biomechanics (ISB)

T2 - Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB)

Y2 - 27 July 2025 through 31 July 2025

ER -

Ear worn inertial sensors can estimate scalar kinetic gait parameters and reconstruct vertical ground reaction force curves during running

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