A new way of assessing arm function in activity using kinematic Exposure Variation Analysis and portable inertial sensors—A validity study
Abstract
Portable motion systems based on inertial motion sensors are promising methods, with the advantage compared to optoelectronic cameras of not being confined to a laboratory setting. A challenge is to develop relevant outcome measures for clinical use. The aim of this study was to characterize elbow and shoulder motion during functional tasks, using portable motion sensors and a modified Exposure Variation Analysis (EVA) and evaluate system accuracy with optoelectronic cameras. Ten healthy volunteers and one participant with sequel after stroke performed standardised functional arm tasks. Motion was registered simultaneously with a custom developed motion sensor system, including gyroscopes and accelerometers, and an optoelectronic camera system. The EVA was applied on elbow and shoulder joints, and angular and angular velocity EVA plots was calculated. The EVA showed characteristic patterns for each arm task in the healthy controls and a distinct difference between the affected and unaffected arm in the participant with sequel after stroke. The accuracy of the portable system was high with a systematic error ranging between -1.2° and 2.0°. The error was direction specific due to a drift component along the gravity vector. Portable motion sensor systems have high potential as clinical tools for evaluation of arm function. EVA effectively illustrates joint angle and joint angle velocity patterns that may capture deficiencies in arm function and movement quality. Next step will be to manage system drift by including magnetometers, to further develop clinically relevant outcome variables and apply this for relevant patient groups.
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Shoulder heterogeneity of results (RMSE 0.2-64.5° and r 0.69-1.00) and movements made it difficult to conclude validity.
“Despite a larger number of studies published for this joint, heterogeneity of results (RMSE between 0.2 and 64.5° and r from 0.69 to 1.00) and movements performed made it difficult to conclude the validity of using M/IMU systems for movement at this joint [31,32,33,34,35,37,38,39,42,43,44,45].”
From Validity and Reliability of Wearable Sensors for Joint Angle Estimation: A Systematic Review (2019) · cites this paper as [31]
Elbow RMSE and correlation coefficient results ranged from 0.2 to 30.6° and 0.68 to 0.99, showing good to excellent validity.
“RMSE and correlation coefficient results range from 0.2 to 30.6° and 0.68 to 0.99, respectively, showing good to excellent validity [28,31,32,33,34,35,37,39,43,45].”
From Validity and Reliability of Wearable Sensors for Joint Angle Estimation: A Systematic Review (2019) · cites this paper as [31]
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- Authors
- Ertzgaard, P., Öhberg, F., Gerdle, B., & Grip, H.
- Affiliations
- Linköping University (SE)
- Centre for Biomedical Engineering and Physics (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Ertzgaard, Per
- Venue
- Manual Therapy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-02
- Volume
- 21
- Pages
- 241-249
- ISSN
- 1356-689X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1922411293
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 3.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Manual Therapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Context-Aware Activity Recognition Systems
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Keywords
- shoulder joint motion, gyroscope drift, outcome measures, movement quality
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Biomechanical Phenomena, Elbow Joint, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Movement, Shoulder Joint, Range of Motion, Articular, Monitoring, Ambulatory
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