Design and Evaluation of a Portable Cost-Effective Biomechanics Analysis System Using Multiple Kinect Sensors

Homecare workers have difficult jobs that place them at high risk of back injury. They perform challenging patient handling activities alone in confined spaces with limited equipment. We need to better understand the postures and techniques homecare workers utilize in order to develop effective solutions to reduce their risk of injury. Existing biomechanical tools require complex equipment and/or lengthy processing time. This work describes the design and evaluation of an inexpensive portable biomechanics evaluation system based on multiple Kinect sensors that addresses these limitations. Caregiver's joints are tracked and posturally-induced spinal loads are calculated. The Kinect system was compared to a gold standard Vicon system and was found to be very accurate overall, with RMS errors (SD) as low as 1.11° (0.97°), 0.86° (0.84°), and 1.80° (1.28°) for flexion, lateral bend, and twist respectively. Pilot tests conducted in simulated bathroom and bedroom settings demonstrated that the system is feasible to use in confined spaces.M.A.S