In recent years, several types of wearable power assist devices are developed to support gait motion of elder people in order to prevent tripping up. Most of them are the type of assisting the walking pattern decided in advance. But, the gait motion is highly dependent on the individual, which means the importance of the gait analysis. Floor contact situation can be used as a gait index. It is thought that floor contact is very useful to distinguish a timing to assist for the walk of the user adequately. In this study, we develop soft sensor socks for walking motion detection that light weight wearing is easy with portable. In this paper, we suggest the detection method of a walk state by floor contact, show feature of the walk state when we acquire floor contact from both legs, and describe future development.

In recent years, wearable power assist device is developed rapidly to prevent the senior citizen from tripping up. It can assist only walking pattern decided beforehand. But, gait of human beings is various. Therefore gait analysis is necessary to estimate of walking motion. Many studies, researcher conduct gait analysis with force plate and motion capture. But they can't estimate walking movement directly, because they have their own equipment and device, and remain in the analysis data acquisition. There is the analyzer fixed the wearable device. It makes weight and structure of device increase and forces user to bear a large burden. In this study, we develop soft sensor socks for walking motion detection that light weight wearing is easy with portable. In this paper, we analyze walking movement and suggest the placement points of the soft sensor on based the analysis, and show performance assessment of the soft sensor socks.