Comparative Analysis of IMUs and Motion Detecting Technology for Measuring Patients’ Lumbar and Cervical Spines’ Range of Motion
by David Bass
Category: Medicine
Abstract – Chiropractors and doctors often analyse their patients’ musculoskeletal health by measuring their spinal range of motions (ROM) through estimation techniques, which do not always yield accurate results; this could potentially result in an inaccurate diagnosis of patients’ conditions. In order to prevent such errors from occurring, technologies such as the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and Motion Detection can be used on patients. Such implementations would allow clinics to accurately measure their patients’ ROMs. This study involves the application of the IMU and Motion Detector in clinical settings in order to assess their reliability for measuring ROMs. The experiment required the participant to perform four specific movements while wearing the IMU device and simultaneously being recorded by the Motion Detector. Data from each trial was retrieved from both devices and comparatively analyzed. The results indicated that the two sets of data collected from the IMU and Motion Detector contained several similarities but mostly contained discrepancies. These discrepancies were likely caused by confounding variables but not due any defects in the technology’s measuring capabilities.