In this paper, we investigated the application of the
manifold learning algorithm in gait data analysis for the
improvement of the gait classification performance. A manifold
learning algorithm such as isometric feature mapping algorithm
(ISOMAP) was firstly employed to perform nonlinear feature
extraction for initiating the training set, and its effect on a
subsequent classification was then tested in combination with
learning algorithms such as support vector machines. The gait
data including young and elderly participants were analyzed, and
the experimental results demonstrated that the generalization
performance of ISOMAP-SVM is an evidently improved
performance compared to the traditional classifier for
recognizing young-elderly gait patterns. Our work suggested that
manifold learning algorithm can find the intrinsic lowdimensional
manifold embedding in high-dimensional gait data,
and obtain the ‘true’ nonlinear gait features associated with
human gait function change for improving the gait classification
performance. The proposed technique has considerable potential
for future clinical applications