Reach-to-Grasp Motion Tracking System Using Single Smart Phone Camera

Assessment of human movement is necessary for physical therapy management. This article presents a development of motion tracking system for human Upper Extremity (UE) function analysis. We proposed the optical motion capture system made by a single smart phone camera. It was used to capture the Reach-to-Grasp (RTG) movement of participants in sitting position. Image processing were used to detect color markers placed on chosen hand anatomical landmarks. With our simple camera calibration technique, the 3D coordinates of hand movement were obtained. Two clinical parameters, grasp aperture and hand transport velocity were computed. These results were compared with the outputs, collected at the same time, from the higher accuracy Electromagnetic Motion (EM) tracking system. Qualitatively, the result patterns from two systems were parallel to each other. Our ongoing work is to improve the algorithms according to the feedback from clinicians. This system may provide implication for physical therapist to assess the clients’ movement in the clinical setting.