Dynamic Evaluation and Treatment of the Movement Amplitude Using Kinect Sensor

Abstract

This paper presents a hybrid solution (software and hardware) integrating the computer and the Kinect sensor. The proposed solution, named GoNet v2, is an instrument for the dynamic and automatic evaluation of biomechanical rehabilitation processes. Experimental tests to evaluate the range of motion of body joints, especially for elbow flexion, elbow extension, shoulder abduction, shoulder flexion, radial deviation, and ulnar deviation, are presented and discussed. We also presented the exergamers for rehabilitation tests, based on Kabat diagonal and squatting. Ten healthy individuals were evaluated using the GoNet v2 and the universal goniometer, and twelve professionals evaluated the instrument through a survey. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to analyze the reproducibility, and for the accuracy analysis the errors were compared using the mean of the worst cases with movement. Regarding intraexaminer and inter-examiner reproducibility, high ICC values were found for the range of flexion/extension of the shoulder, abduction of the shoulder, and ulnar deviation, thus showing its optimum precision. According to the evaluation of the specialists, the GoNet v2 gave better results for the flexion/extension of the shoulder (3.61%) and elbow (3.17%), and also the abduction (2.11%) of the shoulder compared with the goniometer. The results showed that the GoNet v2 had a high reproducibility, except for radial deviation. The accuracy results were good for the abduction measurements of the shoulder and the flexion/extension measurements of the elbow and shoulder.

Keywords

• Arthrometry
• biomechanical rehabilitation
• exergames
• Kinect sensor
• dynamic evaluation
• goniometry