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

2026-04-15

AI Summary

This study addresses the limitations of traditional stopwatch-based gait speed assessment in older adults—namely, poor scalability, infrequent measurement, and reliance on manual observation—which hinder its utility for routine health monitoring. The authors present the first application of passive ultra-high-frequency (UHF) RFID technology to gait speed estimation in elderly populations, proposing a real-time method that leverages dual-antenna received signal strength indicator (RSSI) data and an edge-based peak detection algorithm. By modeling antenna beam symmetry and employing asymmetric signal processing, the approach significantly enhances noise resilience and robustness without requiring video, biometric sensors, or battery-powered devices. Evaluated across three clinical sites with 966 trials, the system achieved an 87.7% success rate and a mean absolute error of only 0.064 m/s, demonstrating clinically acceptable accuracy.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: State Estimation
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Activity and Plan Recognition
• Humans and AI: AI for Accessibility

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Metrics for user behavior and evaluating success
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization

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.

Problem

• gait speed
• RFID
• privacy-preserving
• real-time monitoring
• geriatric assessment

Innovation

• UHF RFID
• gait speed monitoring
• passive sensing
• RSSI-based tracking
• privacy-preserving system