Acquiring Kinematics of Lower extremity with Kinect

Gait analysis is used in monitoring the procedures of treatment and determining many illnesses notably musculoskeletal system disorders. Gait analysis has been carried out with divergent methods for a long time. In this study, kinematic parameters of lower human extremities are determined using Kinect, a camera called Time of Flight that is usually used in the entertainment sector. Kinect is recommended as a low-cost solution for existing gait analysis systems. Kinematic parameters that are used to analyze walking are found by filtering RGB images of colored markers that are attached to joints. 3D world coordinates of the marker centers were determined and labeled by mapping the depth information, which is obtained from Kinect, on RGB images. We used the Kalman filter to estimate the coordinates of markers when the coordinates cannot be accurately determined because of motion blurring. 15 kinematic parameters for each joint are extracted from the coordinates of these markers.