scholarly journals Comparison of a New Inertial Sensor Based System with an Optoelectronic Motion Capture System for Motion Analysis of Healthy Human Wrist Joints

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (23) ◽  
pp. 5297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Alexander Wirth ◽  
Gabriella Fischer ◽  
Jorge Verdú ◽  
Lisa Reissner ◽  
Simone Balocco ◽  
...  

This study aims to compare a new inertial measurement unit based system with the highly accurate but complex laboratory gold standard, an optoelectronic motion capture system. Inertial measurement units are sensors based on accelerometers, gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers. Ten healthy subjects were recorded while performing flexion-extension and radial-ulnar deviation movements of their right wrist using inertial sensors and skin markers. Maximum range of motion during these trials and mean absolute difference between the systems were calculated. A difference of 10° ± 5° for flexion-extension and 2° ± 1° for radial-ulnar deviation was found between the two systems with absolute range of motion values of 126° and 50° in the respective axes. A Wilcoxon rank sum test resulted in a no statistical differences between the systems with p-values of 0.24 and 0.62. The observed results are even more precise than reports from previous studies, where differences between 14° and 27° for flexion-extension and differences between 6° and 17° for radial-ulnar deviation were found. Effortless and fast applicability, good precision, and low inter-observer variability make inertial measurement unit based systems applicable to clinical settings.

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5623
Author(s):  
Gabriella Fischer ◽  
Michael Alexander Wirth ◽  
Simone Balocco ◽  
Maurizio Calcagni

Background: This study investigates the dart-throwing motion (DTM) by comparing an inertial measurement unit-based system previously validated for basic motion tasks with an optoelectronic motion capture system. The DTM is interesting as wrist movement during many activities of daily living occur in this movement plane, but the complex movement is difficult to assess clinically. Methods: Ten healthy subjects were recorded while performing the DTM with their right wrist using inertial sensors and skin markers. Maximum range of motion obtained by the different systems and the mean absolute difference were calculated. Results: In the flexion–extension plane, both systems calculated a range of motion of 100° with mean absolute differences of 8°, while in the radial–ulnar deviation plane, a mean absolute difference of 17° and range of motion values of 48° for the optoelectronic system and 59° for the inertial measurement units were found. Conclusions: This study shows the challenge of comparing results of different kinematic motion capture systems for complex movements while also highlighting inertial measurement units as promising for future clinical application in dynamic and coupled wrist movements. Possible sources of error and solutions are discussed.


Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 4003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung Keun Lee ◽  
Woo Chang Jung

Local frame alignment between an inertial measurement unit (IMU) system and an optical motion capture system (MCS) is necessary to combine the two systems for motion analysis and to validate the accuracy of IMU-based motion data by using references obtained through the MCS. In this study, we propose a new quaternion-based local frame alignment method where equations of angular velocity transformation are used to determine the frame alignment orientation in the form of quaternion. The performance of the proposed method was compared with those of three other methods by using data with different angular velocities, noises, and alignment orientations. Furthermore, the effects of the following three factors on the estimation performance were investigated for the first time: (i) transformation concept, i.e., angular velocity transformation vs. angle transformation; (ii) orientation representations, i.e., quaternion vs. direction cosine matrix (DCM); and (iii) applied solvers, i.e., nonlinear least squares method vs. least squares method through pseudoinverse. Within our limited test data, we obtained the following results: (i) the methods using angular velocity transformation were better than the method using angle transformation; (ii) the quaternion is more suitable than the DCM; and (iii) the applied solvers were not critical in general. The proposed method performed the best among the four methods. We surmise that the fewer number of components and constraints of the quaternion in the proposed method compared to the number of components and constraints of the DCM-based methods may result in better accuracy. Owing to the high accuracy and easy setup, the proposed method can be effectively used for local frame alignment between an IMU and a motion capture system.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1418
Author(s):  
Yu Iwama ◽  
Kengo Harato ◽  
Shu Kobayashi ◽  
Yasuo Niki ◽  
Naomichi Ogihara ◽  
...  

Although the external knee adduction moment (KAM) during gait was shown to be a quantitative parameter of medial knee osteoarthritis (OA), it requires expensive equipment and a dedicated large space to measure. Therefore, it becomes a major reason to limit KAM measurement in a clinical environment. The purpose of this study was to estimate KAM using a single inertial measurement unit (IMU) during gait in patients with knee OA. A total of 22 medial knee OA patients (44 knee joints) performed conventional gait analysis using three-dimensional (3D) motion capture system. At the same time, we attached commercial IMUs to six body segments (sternum, pelvis, both thighs, and both shanks), and IMU signals during gait were recorded synchronized with the motion capture system. The peak-to-peak difference of acceleration in the lateral/medial axis immediately after heel contact was defined as the thrust acceleration (TA). We hypothesized that TA would represent the lateral thrust of the knee during the stance phase and correlate with the first peak of KAM. The relationship between the peak KAM and TA of pelvis (R = 0.52, p < 0.001), shanks (R = 0.57, p < 0.001) and thighs (R = 0.49, p = 0.001) showed a significant correlation. The root mean square error (RMSE) of linear regression models of pelvis, shanks, and thighs to estimate KAM were 0.082, 0.079, and 0.084 Nm/(kg·m), respectively. Our newly established parameter TA showed a moderate correlation with conventional KAM. The current study confirmed our hypothesis that a single IMU would predict conventional KAM during gait. Since KAM is known as an indicator for prognosis and severity of knee OA, this new parameter has the potential to become an accessible predictor for medial knee OA instead of KAM.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa M.B. Morrow ◽  
Bethany Lowndes ◽  
Emma Fortune ◽  
Kenton R. Kaufman ◽  
M. Susan Hallbeck

The purpose of this study was to validate a commercially available inertial measurement unit (IMU) system against a standard lab-based motion capture system for the measurement of shoulder elevation, elbow flexion, trunk flexion/extension, and neck flexion/extension kinematics. The validation analyses were applied to 6 surgical faculty members performing a standard, simulated surgical training task that mimics minimally invasive surgery. Three-dimensional joint kinematics were simultaneously recorded by an optical motion capture system and an IMU system with 6 sensors placed on the head, chest, and bilateral upper and lower arms. The sensor-to-segment axes alignment was accomplished manually. The IMU neck and trunk IMU flexion/extension angles were accurate to within 2.9 ± 0.9 degrees and 1.6 ± 1.1°, respectively. The IMU shoulder elevation measure was accurate to within 6.8 ± 2.7° and the elbow flexion measure was accurate to within 8.2 ± 2.8°. In the Bland-Altman analyses, there were no significant systematic errors present; however, there was a significant inversely proportional error across all joints. As the gold standard measurement increased, the IMU underestimated the magnitude of the joint angle. This study reports acceptable accuracy of a commercially available IMU system; however, results should be interpreted as protocol specific.


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