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Assessment of Stability of MIMU Probes to Skin-Marker-Based Anatomical Reference Frames During Locomotion Tasks: Effect of Different Locations on the Lower Limb

Soft tissue artefacts (STAs) undermine the validity of skin-mounted approaches to measure skeletal kinematics. Magneto-inertial measurement units (MIMU) gained popularity due to their low cost and ease of use. Although the reliability of different protocols for marker-based joint kinematics estimati...

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Autores principales: Scalera, Giovanni Marco, Ferrarin, Maurizio, Marzegan, Alberto, Rabuffetti, Marco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8727529/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35004633
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.721900
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author Scalera, Giovanni Marco
Ferrarin, Maurizio
Marzegan, Alberto
Rabuffetti, Marco
author_facet Scalera, Giovanni Marco
Ferrarin, Maurizio
Marzegan, Alberto
Rabuffetti, Marco
author_sort Scalera, Giovanni Marco
collection PubMed
description Soft tissue artefacts (STAs) undermine the validity of skin-mounted approaches to measure skeletal kinematics. Magneto-inertial measurement units (MIMU) gained popularity due to their low cost and ease of use. Although the reliability of different protocols for marker-based joint kinematics estimation has been widely reported, there are still no indications on where to place MIMU to minimize STA. This study aims to find the most stable positions for MIMU placement, among four positions on the thigh, four on the shank, and three on the foot. Stability was investigated by measuring MIMU movements against an anatomical reference frame, defined according to a standard marker-based approach. To this aim, markers were attached both on the case of each MIMU (technical frame) and on bony landmarks (anatomical frame). For each MIMU, the nine angles between each versor of the technical frame with each versor of the corresponding anatomical frame were computed. The maximum standard deviation of these angles was assumed as the instability index of MIMU-body coupling. Six healthy subjects were asked to perform barefoot gait, step negotiation, and sit-to-stand. Results showed that (1) in the thigh, the frontal position was the most stable in all tasks, especially in gait; (2) in the shank, the proximal position is the least stable, (3) lateral or medial calcaneus and foot dorsum positions showed equivalent stability performances. Further studies should be done before generalizing these conclusions to different motor tasks and MIMU-body fixation methods. The above results are of interest for both MIMU-based gait analysis and rehabilitation approaches using wearable sensors-based biofeedback.
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spelling pubmed-87275292022-01-06 Assessment of Stability of MIMU Probes to Skin-Marker-Based Anatomical Reference Frames During Locomotion Tasks: Effect of Different Locations on the Lower Limb Scalera, Giovanni Marco Ferrarin, Maurizio Marzegan, Alberto Rabuffetti, Marco Front Bioeng Biotechnol Bioengineering and Biotechnology Soft tissue artefacts (STAs) undermine the validity of skin-mounted approaches to measure skeletal kinematics. Magneto-inertial measurement units (MIMU) gained popularity due to their low cost and ease of use. Although the reliability of different protocols for marker-based joint kinematics estimation has been widely reported, there are still no indications on where to place MIMU to minimize STA. This study aims to find the most stable positions for MIMU placement, among four positions on the thigh, four on the shank, and three on the foot. Stability was investigated by measuring MIMU movements against an anatomical reference frame, defined according to a standard marker-based approach. To this aim, markers were attached both on the case of each MIMU (technical frame) and on bony landmarks (anatomical frame). For each MIMU, the nine angles between each versor of the technical frame with each versor of the corresponding anatomical frame were computed. The maximum standard deviation of these angles was assumed as the instability index of MIMU-body coupling. Six healthy subjects were asked to perform barefoot gait, step negotiation, and sit-to-stand. Results showed that (1) in the thigh, the frontal position was the most stable in all tasks, especially in gait; (2) in the shank, the proximal position is the least stable, (3) lateral or medial calcaneus and foot dorsum positions showed equivalent stability performances. Further studies should be done before generalizing these conclusions to different motor tasks and MIMU-body fixation methods. The above results are of interest for both MIMU-based gait analysis and rehabilitation approaches using wearable sensors-based biofeedback. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-12-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8727529/ /pubmed/35004633 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.721900 Text en Copyright © 2021 Scalera, Ferrarin, Marzegan and Rabuffetti. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Scalera, Giovanni Marco
Ferrarin, Maurizio
Marzegan, Alberto
Rabuffetti, Marco
Assessment of Stability of MIMU Probes to Skin-Marker-Based Anatomical Reference Frames During Locomotion Tasks: Effect of Different Locations on the Lower Limb
title Assessment of Stability of MIMU Probes to Skin-Marker-Based Anatomical Reference Frames During Locomotion Tasks: Effect of Different Locations on the Lower Limb
title_full Assessment of Stability of MIMU Probes to Skin-Marker-Based Anatomical Reference Frames During Locomotion Tasks: Effect of Different Locations on the Lower Limb
title_fullStr Assessment of Stability of MIMU Probes to Skin-Marker-Based Anatomical Reference Frames During Locomotion Tasks: Effect of Different Locations on the Lower Limb
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of Stability of MIMU Probes to Skin-Marker-Based Anatomical Reference Frames During Locomotion Tasks: Effect of Different Locations on the Lower Limb
title_short Assessment of Stability of MIMU Probes to Skin-Marker-Based Anatomical Reference Frames During Locomotion Tasks: Effect of Different Locations on the Lower Limb
title_sort assessment of stability of mimu probes to skin-marker-based anatomical reference frames during locomotion tasks: effect of different locations on the lower limb
topic Bioengineering and Biotechnology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8727529/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35004633
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.721900
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