For our Biomechanics assignment this week we had to choose three topics to do preliminary research on that were aligned with our own individual interests. My initial findings are below:
Topic of Interest #1: Optical Motion Capture
I am very interested in motion capture systems and software to track motion, especially in children and infants in order to track their development. However, most of the research papers I found focused on adults, especially those who were older. A nice overview of this process of gait tracking via a depth camera I came across was a journal article entitled, ” Inexpensive Depth Camera for In-Home Gait Assessment”, during my research. The article can be viewed here:
http://www.eldertech.missouri.edu/files/Papers/StoneE/Eval%20of%20an%20Inexpensive%20Depth%20Camera%20for%20In-Home%20Gait.pdf
The article overviewed the benefits of using a depth camera to do this and how it can be used to track a person’s gait within their limbs and body parts and how the data can be used for preventative and actual care. Measuring gait in a person can provide data that can be used to predict the likelihood of a fall or accident and also assist in diagnosing existing conditions. If adequate and qualitative data is used effectively it can assist in allowing more members of the senior community live independently longer.
One of the interesting points that the article addresses is that since the image captured of a person is a depth image, rather than a video, it provides a degree of anonymity. Older adults in particular, many of whom are not a part of the public social media scene, would probably find this to be very attractive, since it is sensitive data and also would probably feel less invaded if a physician or other professional viewed the data.
Topic of Interest #2: Human Movement Visualization Tool (Created using processing)
While the depth image camera can be used to capture gestures, movements, and measure gait, this data should be analyzed and synthesized further via a visualization tool. This can be in both a human body as well as graphical form of representation.
I found a few videos and journal articles on the topic.
1) Human Movement Visualization done via laser scan – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0mC3QN__Io
2) 3D visualization using motion capture system and then movement patterns 3D printed. http://datavisualization.ch/showcases/bodycloud/
I found a video of Greg Borenstein’s existing tool created in Processing to visualize walk data in a 3D space http://vimeo.com/35221911
Here are a few journal articles I found and read on the topic:
Source #1: http://people.stfx.ca/smackenz/Courses/DirectedStudy/Articles/AnnRevBiomedEng2001.pdf – Computer Modeling and Computer Simulation of Human Movement – This article covers: how the structures of the neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems may be represented in a mathematical (computer) model of the body, how these elements may be integrated to simulate the dynamics of a motor task, and how model output can be analyzed.
Source #2: Single still style depth/2D motion image visualization, versus multiple images showing movement patterns: http://smart-art.org/PDF/MovementViz.pdf
Topic of Interest #3: Sensory Substitution
Real-time Sensory Substitution to Enable Players who are Blind to Play Video games using Whole Body Gestures. — Using Tactile and Audio cues to prompt users on how to play the game via additional video cam.
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/2160000/2159385/p147-morelli.pdf?ip=216.165.95.79&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&CFID=184030550&CFTOKEN=26373987&__acm__=1361882449_233bfee546123979d728cb7cc0f36a7a
Autism is a disorder that I am interested in exploring as well. The interesting thing about autism is that it is more about perception than total loss of sense. I wonder if there is a tool that could be used to either monitor or assist those with autism have a more comfortable and functional perception of themselves in society.
Here is an article on the unique sensory perception that often accompanies autism below:
http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/different_sensory_experiences.htm
Topic of Interest #4: Child Developmental Milestone Tracking Via Toy Interaction, Measuring Gait, Strength, Pressure, Muscles
Monitoring Children’s developmental progress using augmented toys and activity recognition. This would be a continuation of the stuffed toy, ButterHugz, I began last semester. The toy is a stuffed animal designed for developmental milestone tracking. I am interested in doing more research in different sensors that could be used to track motion data and creating a visualization for it.
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/2130000/2125155/779_2011_Article_386.pdf?ip=216.165.95.79&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&CFID=184030550&CFTOKEN=26373987&__acm__=1361883054_c6f38a72c73627ffa2cf5349ce07aa04