Abstract
The main concern of the work presented in this manuscript was setting up a complex system for the individualized management of mobility recovery for patients with neuromuscular and orthopaedics pathology through interdisciplinary research. Our goal is to aggregate information from multiple hardware devices into a single data acquisition and processing system with direct applicability in the human motility analysis, namely gait analysis. The authors combine high performance image acquisition techniques with the acquisition of clinically interpretable data. The purpose is setting up a complex database (medical, imagistic, biomechanical) and developing conceptual models for interpreting the available data, with direct applicability in choosing the adequate treatment and evaluating its efficiency. Since the authors are dealing with a system with open architecture, another aspect which concerned them was the security of the system. Consequently, they propose combining the conventional smart used for identification with biometric characteristics, namely fingerprints, substantially preventing unauthorised access to the confidential information
TopBackground
With the development of photography, it became possible to capture image sequences which reveal details of human and animal locomotion that are not noticeable by watching the movement with the naked eye. Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey were the pioneers of this idea in the early 1900s. It was photography which first revealed the detailed sequence of the horse “gallop” gait, which is usually mis-represented in paintings made prior to this discovery, for example.
Although research was done much earlier using film cameras, the widespread application of gait analysis to humans with pathological conditions such as cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, and neuromuscular disorders, began in the 1970s with the availability of video camera systems which could produce detailed studies of individual patients within realistic cost and time constraints. The development of treatment regimes, often involving orthopaedic surgery, based on gait analysis results, advanced significantly in the 1980s. Many leading orthopaedic hospitals worldwide now have gait labs which are routinely used in large numbers of cases, both to design treatment plans, and for follow-up monitoring.
The forefathers of this research are Murali Kadaba, HK Ramakrishnan, and Mary Wootten. Their main papers, dealing with Euler Angles, led to the development of a marker system. This marker system, referred to as the Helen Hayes Marker System is the predecessor of modern marker systems.
Gait analysis commonly involves the measurement of the movement of the body in space (kinematics) and the forces involved in producing these movements (kinetics) (Whittle, 1992).
Kinematics can be recorded using a variety of systems and methodologies:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Smart Card: Any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process information.
Gait Analysis: Study of locomotion. It commonly involves the measurement of the movement of the body in space (kinematics) and the forces involved in producing these movements (kinetics).
Conceptual Model: A simplified representation used to explain the workings of a real world system or event.
Neuromotor: Pertaining to or affecting both nerves and muscles.
Pathology: The physical and mental abnormalities that result from disease or trauma.
Database: Structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system.
Biometrics: The science and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data. In information technology, biometrics refers to technologies that measure and analyze human body characteristics, such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements, for authentication purposes.
Marker: Specific element allowing very accurate measurement of movement using multiple cameras The cameras send out infra red light signals and detect either the reflection from the markers placed on the body (passive markers), or a corresponding signal (active markers).