RFID-based Real-Time Geriatric Gait Speed Monitoring System: Design, Implementation and Clinical Evaluation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a passive, RFID-based gait speed monitoring system that enables real-time, privacy-preserving assessments in clinical settings, demonstrating high accuracy and robustness across multiple sites.

Contribution

The authors designed and deployed a battery-free RFID system for gait speed measurement, improving privacy and maintenance over camera and wearable solutions.

Findings

Achieved 87.7% measurement success rate in clinical trials.

Mean absolute error of 0.064 m/s compared to stopwatch timing.

System operates reliably across three clinical sites.

Abstract

Gait speed is a widely used indicator of functional health and mobility decline, yet in clinical practice it is commonly measured manually using a stopwatch, which limits scalability and measurement frequency. Privacy-preserving and maintenance-free sensing approaches can enable more routine and less burdensome assessments in real-world care settings. This paper presents the design, implementation, and real-world deployment of a fully passive, battery-free gait-speed monitoring system based on ultra-high-frequency (UHF) RFID. Compared with camera- and wearable-based approaches, the proposed system preserves patient privacy by avoiding video capture and biometric data, while eliminating battery maintenance. The system employs a dual-antenna configuration and an edge-based peak-detection algorithm to estimate gait speed in real time from received signal strength indicator (RSSI) streams. By leveraging antenna-beam symmetry and asymmetric signal processing, the method improves robustness to noise, plateau regions, and multiple local maxima. We evaluate the system during routine outpatient care across three clinical sites using 966 trials, achieving an 87.7% measurement success rate. Compared with concurrent stopwatch timing, the system attains a mean absolute error of 0.064 $m/s$, demonstrating reliable operation with accuracy suitable for clinical gait-speed assessment.