You are viewing a javascript disabled version of the site. Please enable Javascript for this site to function properly.
Go to headerGo to navigationGo to searchGo to contentsGo to footer
In content section. Select this link to jump to navigation

Evaluation of upper extremity reachable workspace using Kinect camera

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kurillo, Gregorija; b; * | Chen, Alicc | Bajcsy, Ruzenaa | Han, Jay J.b

Affiliations: [a] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA | [b] Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of California at Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA, USA | [c] Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Gregorij Kurillo, University of California Berkeley, 752 Sutardja Dai Hall #1764, Berkeley, CA 94720-1764, USA. Tel.: +1 510 642 7456; E-mail: [email protected].

Keywords: Kinect, upper extremity, functional evaluation, reachable workspace

DOI: 10.3233/THC-130764

Journal: Technology and Health Care, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 641-656, 2013

Received 26 September 2013
|
Accepted 27 October 2013
|
Published: 11 November 2013
Get PDF open access

Abstract

Background:

In clinical evaluation of upper extremity, there is a lack of assessment methods that are quantitative, reliable, and informative of the overall functional capability of an individual.

Objective:

We present new methodology for the assessment of upper extremity impairments based on the concept of 3-dimensional reachable workspace using Microsoft Kinect.

Methods:

We quantify the reachable workspace by the relative surface area representing the portion of the unit hemi-sphere that is covered by the hand movement. We examine accuracy of joint positions, joint angles, and reachable workspace computation between the Kinect and motion capture system.

Results:

The results of our analysis in 10 healthy subjects showed that the accuracy of the joint positions was within 66.3 mm for our experimental protocol. We found that the dynamic angle measurements had relatively large deviations (between 9° to 28°). The acquired reachable workspace envelope showed high agreement between the two systems with high repeatability between trials (correlation coefficients between 0.86 and 0.93).

Conclusions:

The findings indicate that the proposed Kinect-based 3D reachable workspace analysis provides sufficiently accurate and reliable results as compared to motion capture system. The proposed method could be promising for clinical evaluation of upper extremity in neurological or musculoskeletal conditions.

Show more