ABSTRACT
Human locomotion is an acquired yet complex activity requiring little thought during routine activities. Our understanding of the genesis and development of gait activity remains enigmatic despite significant advances in science and technology. Throughout history, locomotion has evoked curiosity. Analyses have been reported with tools ranging from simple visual observation to video recordings and even more sophisticated computer-based photogrammetric methods. Modern advances in the field began near the end of the nineteenth century with the development of photographic techniques. Perhaps the greatest contributions during that period came from Etienne Jules Marey, a physiologist from Paris, and Eadweard Muybridge, a photographer from the USA. (Marey, 1873, 1885; Marey and Demeny, 1987; Muybridge, 1955). In 1885, Marey utilized a photographic gun to capture displacements of the trunk and limbs during human walking. He also employed a chronophotographic apparatus to obtain a stick diagram of a runner (Winter, 1990a). Muybridge later conducted a series of experiments to monitor locomotor patterns in humans and animals. In one of his experiments, he recorded the patterns of a running individual by employing a chain of 24 stationary cameras positioned side-by-side and mechanically triggered in sequence (Winter, 1990a; Shepherd, 1988a).
