Analysis and Measurement of Human Motion: Modern Protocols and Clinical Considerations

Abstract

The study of movement has always fascinated artists, photographers and researchers. Across the years, several attempts to capture, freeze, study and reproduce motion were made. Nowadays, the possibility to have quantitative data may support the diagnosis and treatment of many pathologies. Thus, in many rehabilitation facilities, a motion analysis laboratory is considered a must-have for diagnosis and patient's monitoring. This paper reviews the first historical attempts, based on photography, and their earliest results, till the state-of-the-art technology used today, i.e. the optoelectronic system.Working principle of the optoelectronic system is described as well as its application and setup in the clinical practice. Modern functional evaluation protocols are reviewed, with pro and cons and examples of clinical results and discoveries. Results of measurements conducted on subjects with neuro-motor pathologies are reviewed. Special attention is paid to the most common motion analysis exam that is nowadays worldwide standardized, i.e. the Gait Analysis. Examples of Gait Analysis on subjects with pathology and follow-up are reviewed.

Concurrent validity and within-session reliability of gait kinematics measured using an inertial motion capture system with repeated calibration

“…The current reference standard in motion capture technology is optical motion capture (OMC) (Ancillao, 2016). However, OMC's clinical appeal is hampered by issues including high costs, expert operation requirements, cumbersome setup and post-processing procedures, marker occlusion and limited ecological validity due to being laboratory-restricted (Ali et al, 2012;Iosa et al, 2016).…”

A Wearable System for Real-Time Continuous Monitoring of Physical Activity

“…Marker-based optoelectronic systems use high-frequency cameras and are generally considered complex and expensive and not suited to be used in an unstructured environment [ 31 , 32 ]. Even if markerless systems are cheaper than marker-based solutions, they are sensitive to lighting conditions and require the subject to be always captured by the camera.…”

Reliability of patient-specific gait profiles with inertial measurement units during the 2-min walk test in incomplete spinal cord injury

“…Assessing these different domains of locomotor function by gait analysis allows the construction of individual gait profiles that are unique to each person, similar to “fingerprints”, particularly after spinal cord injury (SCI) 9 . For gait analysis, optical motion capture (OMC) systems are considered the gold standard 12 . However, these systems come with the disadvantages of high cost, the need for expert operation, time-consuming setup and the fact that it is restricted to a laboratory setting 13 , which does not make them practical for everyday clinical use.…”