Evaluation of Standing Balance of the Elderly with Different Balance Abilities by using Kinect and Wii Balance Board

Abstract

Aging-induced deterioration of physical functions results in impaired balance, causing difficulties in daily living and increasing fall risks (Youm & Kim, 2012; Jeon, Park, Kang & Kim, 2009). Aging is closely related to postural sway, which is critical for maintaining balance, and many studies have been conducted on this topic (Woollacott & ShumwayCook, 2002). Various studies performed measurements of standing body sway, which constitutes the basis of most daily living activities, as a means to assess individual balance, as these parameters present differrences between clinical populations in a noninvasive manner (Koslucher et al., 2012). Traditionally, expensive specialized equipment such as force plates (Prado et al., 2007) or three-dimensional motion analyzers (McLoughlin, Barr, Crotty, Lord & Sturnieks, 2015) has been used for quantitative kinematic measurements of body sway, but more economic and userfriendly equipment such as Kinect Sensor (Microsoft, USA) and Wii Balance Board (WBB; Nintendo, Japan) has been gaining popularity in recent years. Depending on specific standing motions, Kinect provides a relatively accurate location of anatomical joint centers (AJC) by using depth sensors and red green blue (RGB) sensors, while WBB provides information on the center of pressure (COP). These two devices use different measurement methods, but share a common feature of enabling quantitative measurement of body sway without the need to attach separate sensors or markers on the subject's body. Furthermore, Kinect and WBB have been verified to parallel the traditional specialized equipment for use in clinical balance assessment using quantitative kinematic measurements (Clark et al., 2012; Clark et al., 2010). However, previous studies that used Kinect and WBB suggested that these devices have positive effects as intervention tools for exercise games via their developed software (Vernadakis, Derri, Tsitskari & Antoniou, 2014; Goble, Cone & Fling., 2014), but their potential for use in clinical balance assessment of the elderly has hardly been documented. In particular, Goble, Cone and Fling reported that WBB, with its low cost and portability, is a useful alternative to the traditional force platforms, but the balance metrics provided by the software are less effective in describing balance states (Goble et al., 2014). Therefore, parameters that are appropriate for clinical assessment of balance should be extracted by using Kinect and WBB, as doing so may add to the existing benefits of these devices (e.g., low cost and portability) and increase their value as assessment instruments by providing clinical meanings of balance assessment results. In this context, in this study, we measured standing body sway by using Kinect and WBB in elderly subjects to verify the efficacy of these Korean Journal of Sport Biomechanics 2016; 26(4): 391-396 http://dx.doi.org/10.5103/KJSB.2016.26.4.391 http://e-kjsb.org eISSN 2093-9752 ORIGINAL