Ochy Now Offers Walking Gait Analysis

Walking gait analysis is now available with Ochy.

Walking Analysis enables you to assess your customer’s or patient’s gait, identify asymmetries that may be invisible to the naked eye and easily integrate the assessment into your existing workflow.

And gait analysis is no longer just for runners. Everyone walks, and everyone has their own movement patterns. Whether you work with patients in a clinical setting or customers looking for the right footwear, walking analysis makes objective gait insights accessible to a much broader population.

Using only a smartphone or tablet, Ochy provides detailed information about how a person walks, combining spatiotemporal gait metrics with kinematic analysis throughout the gait cycle.

What is walking gait analysis?

Walking gait analysis is the assessment of how a person moves while walking.

Although walking may appear to be a simple and repetitive movement, every step involves the coordinated movement of the feet, knees, hips, pelvis and upper body. Differences in timing, step characteristics and joint movement all contribute to an individual’s gait.

A walking gait analysis makes these movement characteristics measurable.

It can provide information about the timing and progression of each step, known as spatiotemporal gait parameters, as well as information about how different parts of the body move throughout the gait cycle.

This objective data provides an additional layer of information beyond what can be observed with the naked eye.

Why analyze walking gait?

Visual observation can provide valuable information about how someone moves, but walking is a dynamic movement. Multiple body segments move simultaneously, and subtle differences between the left and right sides can be difficult to identify or quantify visually.

Walking gait analysis makes it possible to look at movement in greater detail.

Objective measurements can help highlight left-to-right asymmetries, differences in gait timing and variations in movement throughout the walking cycle.

For healthcare professionals, this information can complement an existing assessment and provide measurable data that can be compared over time.

For retailers, it provides an opportunity to better understand how a customer moves, share personalized gait insights with them and bring additional information into the footwear selection process.

What does Ochy Walking Analysis measure?

Ochy Walking Analysis combines spatiotemporal gait metrics and kinematic analysis to provide a detailed view of walking movement.

Spatiotemporal gait metrics

Spatiotemporal metrics describe the distance, timing and rhythm of walking.

Ochy analyzes step length, cadence, foot clearance and walking speed, together with the time spent in different phases of the gait cycle: stance time, swing time, single support time and double support time.

Together, these metrics provide information about how a person progresses through each step.

Rather than looking at one metric in isolation, practitioners and retailers can explore different characteristics of gait together and compare relevant measurements between the left and right sides. This can make asymmetries easier to identify and quantify.

Understanding movement throughout the gait cycle

Walking is not only about how long or how quickly someone steps. Understanding gait also means looking at how the body moves throughout each step.

Ochy provides kinematic analysis of the trunk, hip, knee and foot throughout the complete gait cycle.

Movement can be visualized across the walking cycle, providing a more detailed view of how joint and body segment angles change from one phase to another. Relevant left and right measurements can also be compared to explore differences between both sides.

Combining these kinematic insights with spatiotemporal gait metrics provides a broader picture of an individual’s walking pattern.

Gait analysis is not just for runners

For many people, the term gait analysis is closely associated with running.

Running stores have traditionally used gait analysis to better understand runners, while coaches and healthcare professionals use running biomechanics to assess movement and support their work with athletes.

But everyone has a gait, not just runners.

Walking Analysis expands gait assessment to people who may never run at all. A patient visiting a physiotherapist, someone going through rehabilitation or a customer entering a footwear store can all gain insights into the way they move.

This opens gait analysis to a much wider population and creates new opportunities for both healthcare professionals and retailers.

Walking gait analysis for healthcare professionals

For physiotherapists, podiatrists, rehabilitation professionals and other healthcare practitioners, walking gait analysis can provide objective movement data to complement clinical observation.

Practitioners can use Ochy to explore how a patient walks, identify and quantify asymmetries and establish objective measurements that can be referenced during future assessments.

This is particularly useful when monitoring movement over time. Repeating a walking analysis makes it possible to compare measurements between assessments and observe how a patient's gait evolves.

The results can also support patient communication. Visualizing movement and showing measurable differences can help practitioners explain gait characteristics in a way that is easier for patients to understand.

Walking gait analysis does not replace clinical expertise or provide a diagnosis on its own. Instead, it adds objective biomechanical information that can be considered alongside the patient's history, symptoms and broader clinical assessment.

Walking gait analysis for retailers

Walking Analysis also brings gait assessment to a much wider retail audience.

Traditionally, gait analysis in footwear retail has been heavily focused on runners. But every person entering a footwear store has their own gait, regardless of whether they run.

Walking analysis gives retailers an opportunity to understand how each customer moves and give them personalized insights into their gait.

These movement insights can then become another part of the footwear selection process.

Alongside information such as foot characteristics, intended use, comfort and personal preferences, understanding a customer's gait can help staff build a more complete picture of the individual and support the selection of footwear suited to their needs.

It also creates a more personalized in-store experience. Instead of gait analysis being reserved for customers buying running shoes, every customer entering the store can potentially benefit from a movement assessment.

Bringing walking gait analysis into your existing workflow

Objective gait assessment has traditionally been associated with dedicated biomechanics laboratories using technologies such as 3D motion capture, force plates and instrumented treadmills.

These systems remain valuable for research and complex biomechanical assessments, but they are not always practical for everyday clinical or retail environments.

Ochy Walking Analysis is designed to fit into the environments where professionals already work.

A short side-view walking video can be captured using a smartphone or tablet and analyzed with Ochy's AI-powered biomechanics technology. There is no need for markers, wearable sensors or dedicated laboratory equipment.

The resulting spatiotemporal and kinematic data can then be incorporated into an existing clinical assessment or retail customer journey.

For a healthcare professional, that might mean adding objective gait data to an assessment and using it to monitor movement over time.

For a retailer, it can mean understanding how a customer moves, sharing those insights with them and using the information as an additional input when helping them find suitable footwear.

The goal is not to create an entirely new process, but to add objective walking gait insights to the workflow you already have.

Making gait analysis accessible to everyone

With the introduction of Walking Analysis, Ochy is expanding gait assessment beyond running.

Healthcare professionals can use objective walking data to complement their assessments, identify asymmetries and monitor changes in movement. Retailers can better understand their customers' gait, provide personalized movement insights and support a more informed footwear experience.

And because Walking Analysis works from a short video captured with a smartphone or tablet, these insights can be integrated into existing workflows without dedicated laboratory equipment.

Gait analysis should not be limited to runners. With Walking Analysis, Ochy is making it possible to better understand how more people move, one step at a time.

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