Kinematic characterization of standing reach: A markerless approach

Falls in the elderly represent a leading cause of disability, injury, and death. Identification of elderly people at high risk of falling should be a leadingmedical priority. In literature there are many clinical balance tests used to predict falls. The motor task taken into account in this work is the standing reach (SR) [1]. The SR consists in leaning the trunk forward trying to reach the maximum displacement of the arms, and maintaining the wrists at approximately the same height during the whole movement. The base of support is fixed during the task because the subject is required not to lift his heels or step forward. The maximum displacement of the hands (handmax) is a measure of clinical significance for its predictive value about recurrent falls in the elderly subjects. Nevertheless, only this measure, cannot be considered a measure of dynamic balance, in the sense that it is not able to differentiate healthy elders from individuals with balance impairments. More insight can be obtained from the same motor task if it can be described looking also at its kinematic behaviour. The aim of this work was to derive a procedure able to estimate joint kinematics and the centre of mass (CoM) excursion during SR test, using a markerless approach and computer graphic methods.