3D Analysis of Upper Limbs Motion During Rehabilitation Exercises Using the KinectTM Sensor: Development, Laboratory Validation and Clinical Application

Optoelectronic devices are gold standard for 3D evaluation in clinics but due to the complexity of such kind of hardware and the lack of access for patients affordable, transportable and easy to use systems must be developed to be largely used in daily clinics. The KinectTM sensor presents various advantages compared to optoelectronic devices: price, transportability but also some limitations: (in)accuracy of the skeleton detection and tracking as well as the limited amount of available points that make 3D evaluation impossible. To overcome these limitations a novel method has been developed to perform 3D evaluation of the upper limbs. This system is coupled to rehabilitation exercises allowing functional evaluation while performing physical rehabilitation. To validate this new approach a double step method was used. The first step is a laboratory validation where the results obtained with the KinectTM have been compared with results obtained with an optoelectronic device, 40 healthy young adults participated in this first part. The second step was to determine the clinical relevance of such kind of measurement. Results of the healthy subjects were compared with a group of 22 elderly adults and a group of 10 chronic stroke patients to determine if different patterns can be observed. The new methodology and the different steps of the validations are presented in this paper.