A low-cost portable 3D human motion analysis system: An application of gait analysis

Abstract

Human movement is fast and complicated. Human movement analysis systems are used in occupational biomechanics to have a better understanding of the kinematics of human movement. The purpose of the current research project is to create a low-cost portable human movement analysis system that can be used to investigate human movement for three-dimensional (3D) kinematics analysis using two cameras in an application of gait analysis. This gait analysis system performs image analysis with MATLAB. The design and development method has five major steps, which include (1) the design and calculation of XYZ coordinates (body segment), (2) the design and development of human movement analysis system, (3) the design and development of system calibration, (4) the determination of a 3D Cartesian system, and (5) the design and development of human movement tracking and recording systems. Findings indicate that the total costs of a human movement analysis systems are currently less than 1,500 USD. In addition, this human movement analysis system has many practical uses for outdoor research projects.