Brief: MIT’s new device is a step above wearable health trackers

MIT’s WiGait can be put up on a wall like a painting to continuously monitor people walking about the house. Photo credit: MIT News.

The AI lab at MIT has developed a health tracker called WiGait which can be hung like a painting on the wall. It bounces wireless signals off a person’s body to measure their walking speed as they move around the house. Its radiation is one-hundredth that of a smartphone.
It can measure the walking speed with 95-99 percent accuracy – which is way more than wearables like Fitbit or GPS-enabled smartphones. Research shows that gait can be a better predictor of cognitive decline, falls, and cardiac or respiratory disorders.

This can disrupt health tracking because people don’t have to remember to wear a device. Its accuracy can give a better input to caregivers monitoring geriatric people. And it tracks data continuously to spot changes in gait to predict problems and prevent hospitalization.
Other uses are likely to emerge in the future with WiGait’s data and algorithms. Health regimen, physical therapy, and medication can be adjusted. The length of stride can be an indicator of Parkinson’s disease.