Human motion analysis with ultrasound and sonomyography

Skeletal muscle is an important tissue of human body, and its contraction can control and regulate body motions, which plays a key role in the human movement. With the development of computer and human motion analysis, the muscle activities are involved into the whole human motion analysis. Currently, muscle assessments in human motion analysis are commonly performed using surface electromyography (SEMG). However SEMG cannot be applied to measure all muscles because its access to deep muscles is very limited, which restricts its application. Sonomyography (SMG), which represents the real-time change of muscle architectural parameters obtained using ultrasound imaging, is an alternative noninvasive method to quantify the muscle dynamic activities during human motion. It is gradually becoming a reliable research and clinical tool and playing increasingly important role in the functional assessment of muscles. In this study, a human motion analysis system with ultrasound and sonomyography which could provide objective data about muscle architectures and their change during muscle contraction in real-time was developed. Preliminary tests were conducted on a normal subject, and the feasibility was demonstrated.