A low cost wearable optical-based goniometer for human joint monitoring

Abstract

Widely used in the fields of physical and occupational therapy, goniometers are indispensible when it comes to angular measurement of the human joint. In both fields, there is a need to measure the range of motion associated with various joints and muscle groups. For example, a goniometer may be used to help determine the current status of the range of motion in bend the arm at the elbow, bending the knee, or bending at the waist. The device can help to establish the range of motion at the beginning of the treatment series, and also allow the therapist to monitor progress during subsequent sessions. Most commonly found are the mechanical goniometers which are inexpensive but bulky. As the parts are mechanically linked, accuracy and resolution are largely limited. On the other hand, electronic and optical fiberbased goniometers promise better performance over its mechanical counterpart but due to higher cost and setup requirements does not make it an attractive proposition as well. In this paper, we present a reliable and non-intrusive design of an optical-based goniometer for human joint measurement. This device will allow continuous and longterm monitoring of human joint motion in everyday setting. The proposed device was benchmarked against mechanical goniometer and optical based motion capture system to validate its performance. From the empirical results, it has been proven that this design can be use as a robust and effective wearable joint monitoring device.

Monitoring Methods of Human Body Joints: State-of-the-Art and Research Challenges

“…For joint angle measurements, several sensing systems were proposed and developed [26,42,43,44,48,49,50,51,52,53,63,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,94,95]. Most joint angle measurement systems were based on mechanical or electromechanical goniometers that used resistive potentiometers or strain gauges [17,29,96,97]. However, the major disadvantages of these systems were inflexibility and lower accuracy.…”

Wearable Wrist Movement Monitoring Using Dual Surface-Treated Plastic Optical Fibers

“…However, in addition to the requirements for manual data recording and large size, the traditional goniometric measurement process is tedious and time-consuming for hand therapists and patients. Currently, common devices used for this purpose are electromechanical goniometers, which generally come into operation by using resistive potentiometers or strain gauges [10,11]. Conventional metal foils and semiconductor-based strain gauges are incompetent for use in wearable sensing, due to their poor mechanical compliance and limited workable range [12].…”

A Complementary Filter Design on SE(3) to Identify Micro-Motions during 3D Motion Tracking

“…Optical motion capture technology is a valuable tool when quantifying human movements and clinical, biomechanical, and industrial applications require high system accuracy [ 1 ]. While motion capture is often tied to high costs, over the last years less expensive systems have been developed to measure human or robotic motion including goniometers [ 2 ], accelerometers [ 3 , 4 , 5 ], inertia-based and electromagnetic sensors [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. A variety of research has been conducted to report characteristics of selected sensor systems and/or to validate new technical devices.…”