Focus #1: 3D Kinematics

Common Motion Analysis Techniques

Challenge #1:
A patient with spastic paraplegia is having difficulty ambulating, but doctors are not sure where the problem is being caused. Perform a gait analysis on the patient and determine the likely cause of the gait difficulties. Botox injections are administered to the patient's hamstring muslces. Was this the correct diagnosis/treatment? Perform a gait analysis on the pateint after he received the injections.

Challenge #2:
A middle aged man suffers a stroke that affects his gait. In physical therapy the doctor stretches his ankle. Is this treatment effective in improving the patient's ankle-knee movement? Perform an analysis of 3-D kinematics of the ankle using the OPTOTRAK motion analysis system.

Challenge #3:
A basketball player tears her ACL during a game. She wishes to continue playing without reconstructive surgery. How will she adapt her movements to a torn ACL? Test the 3-D kinematics using a 6-DOF goniometer.

Experiment #1:
Flock of Birds (FOB) Laboratory

Focus #2: Electromyography
Challenge #4:
An assembly line worker is finishing up an eight hour shift. He spent the morning installing circuits into a motherboard. He broke one chip every 25 motherboards. In the afternoon he helped to load completed boards onto a truck. He is exhausted, but his boss says that they are backlogged and he needs to work overtime for another six hours. So the assembly line worker goes back to installing circuits into motherboards. He now breaks one chip in every ten. Why? If he loads the circuits into the trucks again how much can he now lift?

Focus #3: Joint Mechanics
Experiment #2
Biodex Laboratory

Credits & References
Terminology
Links to Related Websites