Kinematic characteristics of daily gait patterns perceived as beautiful by third parties

Research question

This study was designed for kinematic clarification of those characteristics of gait in daily gait behavior which are recognized as beautiful.

Methods

The gait motions of 50 healthy adults across a flat floor were measured using a markerless motion capture system. After skeletal modeled gait animations were created, the gait aesthetics of each were rated using a questionnaire survey. Animations were created from two perspectives: sagittal and frontal planes. We asked a third party to observe these animations and to rate the gait beauty. Raters had received no special gait training. The study examined 166 participants in the sagittal plane survey and 175 participants in the frontal plane survey. From the questionnaire survey results, we produced four gait groups and extracted the kinematic characteristics of the gait groups which were recognized as beautiful. The spatiotemporal parameters including arm swing, joint angles of the lower limbs, and trunk tilt angle were calculated and compared statistically among groups.

Results

The following features were extracted as beautiful gait characteristics: (1) long gait cycle; (2) long double limb support time; (3) narrow step width; (4) large arm swing length; (5) hands and feet located close to the central axis of the body; (6) flexion of the knee joints of both legs suppressed during the double limb support phase, with knees kept in extension; and (7) trunk kept in the median or posterior tilt.