Four-Joint Based Motion Capture for Spinal Disease Prevention System

Abstract

ABSTRACTBad posture triggers spinal diseases by forming a twisted or crooked body. Therefore, it is vital for modern people mostly living a sedentary lifestyle to have correct posture. Thanks to rising demand in the health care sector and advancement of information technology these days, the development of a self-coaching system is underway using motion capture technology. With the self-coaching system applied to rehabilitation exercises or the sports field, subjects using the system can practice and learn rehabilitation exercises or sports motions on their own without any help. It is necessary to acquire and analyze motion data both from experts for coaching purposes and users who are being coached in order to develop the self-coaching system. The existing motion capture system has a drawback in that it is difficult to make smooth and natural motions because it uses heavy machines or a wired system. In this paper, we proposed a reasonably priced motion capture system requiring less preparation time and measurement space by using small-sized and lightweight microelectromechanical systems-based wireless inertial sensors to address the problems with the existing motion capture system. The analysis results show that the motion data of four joints acquired through the embodied system can be applied to the self-coaching system, and users can employ the system for spinal disease diagnosis themselves.