Development of kinematic measurement system with Kinect sensor

Virtual measurement system provides several advantages over the conventional one like non contact sensor, ruggedness etc. The system is developed for the detection of gait characteristics from the kinect image sensor. There is a centralized influence by hip and knee on human gait and it requires an continuous monitoring tool for effective rehabilitation. Kinect gives the 30 fps 3D motion capturing capability of human skeleton. It also calculates joint skeleton information along with relative angles when the subject walks in a Kinect field of view. The result were compared with the standard electro goniometer system. The system is validated for knee joint angle at different gait conditions and also by changing the position of the Kinect image sensor right and left. Study showed that the joint angles between both system gives the RMSE values variation from ~4.27° to ~4.91° for right knee and ~3.56° to ~5.24° for left knee. The developed system is more economical with less complexity. Also, there is no point of contact and due to this the offset error is reduced.