Automated Quantification of the Landing Error Scoring System With a Markerless Motion-Capture System

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Sports Medicine
• Injury Prevention

Background:

• The Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) identifies individuals at high risk for lower extremity injuries.
• Manual LESS scoring from video is time-consuming, limiting clinical application.
• Markerless motion-capture technology offers potential for automated LESS scoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability of an automated markerless motion-capture system for scoring the LESS.
• To compare the reliability of automated LESS scoring with traditional expert rater scoring.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 57 healthy, physically active individuals.
• Participants performed three jump-landing trials recorded by standard video and depth cameras.
• Movement quality was assessed by expert raters and automated software, with errors noted if present in at least two trials.

Main Results:

• High interrater reliability was observed between two expert LESS raters (average κ = 0.45).
• The markerless motion-capture system showed comparable reliability to expert consensus scores (average κ = 0.48).
• Reliability was poor for five specific LESS items in both scoring comparisons.

Conclusions:

• Markerless motion-capture systems achieve reliability comparable to expert LESS raters.
• Automated LESS scoring using this technology is a viable and accurate method for movement assessment.
• This system can overcome the time limitations of manual scoring, facilitating clinical use.