Abstract
BackgroundPerformance indices provide quantitative measures for the quality of motion, and therefore, assist in analyzing and monitoring patients’ progress. Measurement of performance indices requires costly devices, such as motion capture systems. Recent developments of sensors for game controllers, such as Microsoft Kinect, have motivated many researchers to develop affordable systems for performance measurement applicable to home and clinical care. In this work, the capability of Kinect in finding motion performance indices was assessed by analyzing intra-session and inter-session test–retest reliability.MethodEighteen stroke patients and twelve healthy subjects participated in this investigation. The intra-session and inter-session reliability of eight performance indices, namely mean velocity (MV), normalized mean speed (NMS), normalized speed peaks (NSP), logarithm of dimensionless jerk (LJ), curvature (C), spectral arc length (SAL), shoulder angle (SA), and elbow angle (EA), were assessed using intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM) and coefficient of variation (CV).ResultsThe results showed that, among the performance indices, MV, LJ, C, SA and EA have more than 0.9 ICC together with an acceptable SEM and CV in both stroke patients and healthy subjects. Comparing the results of different therapy sessions showed that MV, LJ and C are more sensitive than other indices, and hence, more capable of reflecting the progress of a patient during the rehabilitation process.ConclusionThe results of this study shows acceptable reliability and sensitivity across the sessions for MV, LJ and C measured by Kinect for both healthy subjects and stroke patients. The results are promising for the development of home-based rehabilitation systems, which can analyze patient’s movements using Kinect as an affordable motion capture sensor.
Highlights
Performance indices provide quantitative measures for the quality of motion, and assist in analyzing and monitoring patients’ progress
The results of this study shows acceptable reliability and sensitivity across the sessions for mean velocity (MV), logarithm of dimensionless jerk (LJ) and C measured by Kinect for both healthy subjects and stroke patients
Eleven of the patients were in the sub-acute phase, and seven of them were at the chronic phase
Summary
Performance indices provide quantitative measures for the quality of motion, and assist in analyzing and monitoring patients’ progress. Measurement of performance indices requires costly devices, such as motion capture systems. Using virtual reality systems for stroke rehabilitation is a flourishing field in physical and neurological rehabilitation. Such systems can help patients have a more intensive and entertaining training. Various sensors have been used in the development of such systems, including very simple ones, such as IMUs (inertial measurement units), and more sophisticated ones, such as sensorized robotic arms. The potentials of such systems in physical and neurological rehabilitation have been investigated by various researchers. Bao et al [6] have discussed the role Kinect can play in the recovery of upper limbs of stroke patients
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