Patent ID: 8460220

Claim:
A system for monitoring gait characteristics of one or more enrollees in a monitoring region of a public area, said system comprising: an identifying device comprising a video camera positioned in the monitoring region of the public area, wherein the identifying device is configured to: automatically prompt a potential enrollee having entered the monitoring region of the public area to provide consent for monitoring the enrollee in the monitoring region, and enroll the enrollee on receiving the enrollee's consent, said enrolling including automatically prompting the enrollee to move to a designated location in the monitoring region of the public area to acquire identifying information of the enrollee during an enrollment phase and automatically prompting the enrollee to move in monitoring region within a field of view of the video camera to measure a sample gait characteristic of the enrollee during the enrollment phase; and acquire identifying information of one or more individuals having entered the monitoring region during a monitoring phase subsequent to the enrollment phase; a processor configured to identify the enrollee from the one or more individuals in the monitoring region by comparing the acquired identifying information of the one or more individuals in the monitoring region with the acquired identifying information of the enrollee during the enrollment phase to determine if one of the individuals is the enrollee; and a gait monitoring device configured to measure the sample gait characteristic of the enrollee during the enrollment phase; said gait monitoring device being further configured to measure a gait characteristic of the enrollee during the monitoring phase, if the processor identifies that one of the individuals is the enrollee; wherein said processor is further configured to compare the measured gait characteristic of the enrollee with at least one of a previously-measured gait characteristic and the sample gait characteristic of the enrollee, to determine if the measured gait characteristic exceeds a safety threshold.