Virtual Gait Visualization based on Geometric Kinematics

Abstract

Biomechanical modeling of the human body and scientific visualization are widely used tools for gait analysis. In this study, we propose a framework for the scientific visualization of the human gait cycle based on the geometric inverse kinematics of position (GIK) of an 8 degrees of freedom (DoF). The coordinates of the joint references in gait space used as input were obtained in a previous work using quaternions algebra (QFK). Subsequently, the joint angles obtained by the GIK method were used to make a 3D animation of the normal gait cycle in Maya Autodesk. To validate the inverse kinematics and the animation, the well-known OpenSim platform was used as a reference. The results obtained are of special interest to the end-user in clinical settings, since they can be used to improve the diagnoses of gait diseases and their inherent treatments.