Résumé
Human movement within the home remains poorly understood despite growing interest in smart environments and aging-in-place technologies. Investigating walking behavior within domestic spaces, which are subject to specific constraints and obstacles, may reveal significant differences from outdoor walking and provide a deeper understanding of human-environment interactions in indoor settings.
We present a four-year longitudinal study of natural indoor walking behavior, conducted using proximity-sensitive flooring in a smart apartment located in Montpellier, in southern France. Eight participants, organized into pairs, were monitored to observe their natural indoor walking behavior.
The data, processed through algorithmic analysis, enabled the characterization of walking behavior indoors. By analyzing 2.5 million steps and over 346,000 individual walking trajectories, we show that indoor locomotion is fragmented, variable, and strongly constrained by the environment.
Though step counts were lower than in public spaces, home-based walking comprised a meaningful share of daily activity. Changes in walking patterns may serve as early indicators of functional decline, offering new avenues for health monitoring and smart home design.