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Clinical Trial
. 2015 Oct 13;10(10):e0139913.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139913. eCollection 2015.

Kinematic Validation of a Multi-Kinect v2 Instrumented 10-Meter Walkway for Quantitative Gait Assessments

Daphne J Geerse  1 , Bert H Coolen  2 , Melvyn Roerdink  2
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Kinematic Validation of a Multi-Kinect v2 Instrumented 10-Meter Walkway for Quantitative Gait Assessments

Daphne J Geerse et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Walking ability is frequently assessed with the 10-meter walking test (10MWT), which may be instrumented with multiple Kinect v2 sensors to complement the typical stopwatch-based time to walk 10 meters with quantitative gait information derived from Kinect's 3D body point's time series. The current study aimed to evaluate a multi-Kinect v2 set-up for quantitative gait assessments during the 10MWT against a gold-standard motion-registration system by determining between-systems agreement for body point's time series, spatiotemporal gait parameters and the time to walk 10 meters. To this end, the 10MWT was conducted at comfortable and maximum walking speed, while 3D full-body kinematics was concurrently recorded with the multi-Kinect v2 set-up and the Optotrak motion-registration system (i.e., the gold standard). Between-systems agreement for body point's time series was assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Between-systems agreement was similarly determined for the gait parameters' walking speed, cadence, step length, stride length, step width, step time, stride time (all obtained for the intermediate 6 meters) and the time to walk 10 meters, complemented by Bland-Altman's bias and limits of agreement. Body point's time series agreed well between the motion-registration systems, particularly so for body points in motion. For both comfortable and maximum walking speeds, the between-systems agreement for the time to walk 10 meters and all gait parameters except step width was high (ICC ≥ 0.888), with negligible biases and narrow limits of agreement. Hence, body point's time series and gait parameters obtained with a multi-Kinect v2 set-up match well with those derived with a gold standard in 3D measurement accuracy. Future studies are recommended to test the clinical utility of the multi-Kinect v2 set-up to automate 10MWT assessments, thereby complementing the time to walk 10 meters with reliable spatiotemporal gait parameters obtained objectively in a quick, unobtrusive and patient-friendly manner.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Body points derived with the human-pose estimation software of Kinect v1.
(A) RGB image and (B) depth image with the corresponding body points derived with the human-pose estimation software of Kinect v1.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Overview of the multi-Kinect v2 set-up.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Body point determination with the Optotrak and Kinect v2 systems.
(A) Subject with all markers of the Optotrak system; (B) Same subject with body points derived with the human-pose estimation algorithm of Kinect v2.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Overview of the analysis of spatiotemporal gait parameters.
Analyses for CWS (panels A and B) and MWS (panels C and D) conditions are based on AP displacement data of the right (gray lines) and left (black lines) ankles as a function of time for the multi-Kinect v2 set-up. AP ankle time series relative to the spine base (panels A and C) were used to estimate instants of foot contact (black dots) and foot off (gray dots) for each step. Step location was defined as the median value of the AP ankle time series during the single-support stance phase (i.e., the horizontal plateaus delimited by foot off and foot contact events of the contralateral foot in panels B and D). Vertical bars represent the four beep onsets of the auditory start command. The shaded area in panels B and D represent the 6-meter window from which spatiotemporal gait parameters were derived. Dashed lines in panels B and D schematically define the time to walk 10 meters (T10), step time (ST) and step length (SL).
Fig 5
Fig 5. Representative ankle time series of the multi-Kinect v2 set-up and the Optotrak system.
Multi-Kinect v2 (gray lines) and Optotrak (black lines) time series of the right (panels A and C) and left (panels B and D) ankle in the AP (detrended) and ML direction for a part of a CWS trial, including between-systems agreement assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient for consistency (ICC(C,1)) and absolute agreement (ICC(A,1)).
Fig 6
Fig 6. Time to walk 10 meters for CWS and MWS conditions.
Bars represent average time to walk 10 meters for the multi-Kinect v2 set-up (gray bars), the Optotrak motion-registration system as the gold-standard reference (black bars) and the stopwatch as the clinical standard (white bars).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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