Towards an IMU Evaluation Framework for Human Body Tracking.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Rehabilitation Technology

Background:

• Current Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) based full-body tracking systems demand expert knowledge, hindering daily use.
• Applications in Active and Assisted Living (AAL) require precise human movement tracking for monitoring functional training and assessing movement quality.
• A lack of clear guidelines complicates the selection of appropriate IMUs for body tracking tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present an evaluation framework for selecting Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) for human body tracking.
• To provide objective criteria for comparing IMUs based on device features and data quality.
• To facilitate the adoption of IMU-based tracking in fields like Active and Assisted Living (AAL).

Main Methods:

• Development of a comprehensive IMU evaluation framework with five key requirement areas.
• Assessment of IMU data quality through rigorous static and dynamic error analysis.
• Comparative evaluation of four distinct IMUs with varying component consumption.

Main Results:

• The proposed IMU evaluation framework effectively compares IMUs across defined requirement areas.
• Static and dynamic error analyses provide quantitative measures of data quality.
• The framework demonstrated its utility as a promising tool for informed IMU selection.

Conclusions:

• The developed IMU evaluation framework simplifies the selection process for human body tracking applications.
• This framework aids researchers and developers in choosing IMUs that meet specific data quality and feature requirements.
• The evaluation framework is a valuable resource for advancing IMU-based human movement analysis, particularly in AAL settings.