*2.4. Experimental Protocol*

For this study, a total of 35 subjects were recruited and approved by the institutional review board (IRB No. SCH2016-130). Eighteen hemiparetic patients (12 males, 6 females) with an average age of 63.94 ± 8.75 years and 17 healthy adults (7 males, 10 females) with an average age of 56.47 ± 17.19 years participated. Three of the hemiparetic patients were diagnosed with bilateral hemiparesis, 6 with left hemiparesis, and 9 with right hemiparesis (Tables 2 and 3). The patients who participated in this study were those diagnosed with a stroke between July 2016 and February 2017.

The experiment took place at a local hospital under close supervision by a physical therapist. Each participant was asked to walk down a 20-m long corridor back and forth (1 round trip) at a comfortable speed while wearing the given sneakers with TCPSI inside. The TCPSI sensor was prepared according to the subject's shoe size (all sizes between 235 to 285 mm). Furthermore, TCPSI was developed to fit the size of the shoe and was configured to collect and save the data in real time while the subjects walked at a comfortable speed. For the patient subjects who complained of pain or discomfort during the experiment, a resting time of more than 5 min was given.

The experiment environment is illustrated in Figure 9. All subjects were adequately informed about the experiment procedure and the experiment was conducted after obtaining written consent from all participants.

The collected gait data were analyzed by using the PPD, step count, stride time, CV and PCI of hemiparetic patients and compared their gait coordination functions with those of healthy adults.

**Figure 9.** Experimental environment.


**Table 2.** General characteristics of hemiparetic subjects.

RH: right hemiparesis, LH: left hemiparesis, BH: bilateral hemiparesis, HA: healthy adults.


