Real-time detection of freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease using multi-head convolutional neural networks and a single inertial sensor.

Background: Freezing of gait (FOG) is one of the most disabling symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), contributing to poor quality of life and increased risk of falls. Wearable sensors represent a valuable means for detecting FOG in the home environment. Moreover, real-time feedback has proven to help reduce the duration of FOG episodes. This work proposes a robust real-time FOG detection algorithm, which is easy to implement in stand-alone devices working in non-supervised conditions.

Method: Data from three different data sets were used in this study, with two employed as independent test sets. Acceleration recordings from 118 PD patients and 21 healthy elderly subjects were collected while they performed simulated daily living activities. A single inertial sensor was attached to the waist of each subject. More than 17 h of valid data and a total number of 1110 FOG episodes were analyzed in this study. The implemented algorithm consisted of a multi-head convolutional neural network, which exploited different spatial resolutions in the analysis of inertial data. The architecture and the model parameters were designed to provide optimal performance while reducing computational complexity and testing time.

Results: The developed algorithm demonstrated good to excellent classification performance, with more than 50% (30%) of FOG episodes predicted on average 3.1 s (1.3 s) before the actual onset in the main (independent) data set. Around 50% of FOG was detected with an average delay of 0.8 s (1.1 s) in the main (independent) data set. Moreover, a specificity above 88% (93%) was obtained when testing the algorithm on the main (independent) test set, while 100% specificity was obtained on healthy elderly subjects.

Conclusion: The algorithm proved robust, with low computational complexity and processing time, thus paving the way to a real-time implementation in a stand-alone device that can be used in non-supervised environments.