Towards balance assessment using Openpose.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Clinical Biomechanics
• Rehabilitation Technology

Background:

• Assessing patient balance is crucial for fall risk mitigation.
• Existing balance assessment tools often lack quantitative data or clinical practicality.
• There is a need for accessible, quantitative balance assessment methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a balance assessment method using single-camera videos.
• To leverage OpenPose for calculating Center of Mass (COM) and Center of Pressure (COP) trajectories.
• To provide a cost-effective and portable solution for clinical balance evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized OpenPose software to analyze single-camera videos for human pose estimation.
• Calculated Center of Mass (COM) and Center of Pressure (COP) trajectories from video data.
• Validated the proposed method by comparing its estimates against 3D motion capture and force plate data.

Main Results:

• The single-camera video method demonstrated comparable results to 3D motion capture and force plate systems.
• Quantitative balance metrics were successfully derived from video recordings.
• The proposed approach showed potential for accurate balance assessment.

Conclusions:

• Single-camera video analysis with OpenPose offers a viable, inexpensive, and portable method for balance assessment.
• This technology can serve as a practical replacement for traditional clinical balance assessment tools.
• The findings support the use of this method in clinical settings for fall risk evaluation.