“Upperlimb” is a stand alone application focused on upper extremity motion analysis, based on measurement data collected from 3D optical marker tracking systems.
It has been created for quick and easy processing and analysis of upper limb movement data and is offered as a graphical user interface to ensure maximum applicability in medical practice and research.
Upperlimb is tested extensively with data collected by the Vicon system, especially the deprecated software Vicon Workstation, its current pendant Nexus and also the software Tracker, which is often used in the context of robotics sciences.
The application includes advanced algorithms for joint center- and axes estimation, based on functional methods. The results of the data processing can be visualized as 3D stick figure motion and time series plots. It also integrates a motion analysis data mining tool to collect frame based parameters from the time series and it allows to export this data for external processing, e.g. by spreadsheet programs (Excel or Open/Libre-Office).
Upperlimb is a highly configurable software tool that allows to:
Distinctive features:
The original application Version 0.1 has been developed from the company ORAT Software-Entwicklung in the year 2009 to simplify and standardize research projects from medical PD students in the Gait- and Motionlab at Heidelberg University clinics. It fullfills the specific needs of this gaitlab only.
“Upperlimb 0.2” was the first application based on the Nimue platform - a high configurable set of modules to build up motion analysis applications. It includes a big set of commercial modules, which prohibits, that the application can be made available open source as a whole.
With the growing number of student projects (at University of Heidelberg till 2017, at DHBW Karlsruhe after 2017), working with this software, and with the growing number of publications based on its calculations, the idea comes up to implement a “Version 2 Upperlimb software” and to make it commonly available.
The work on this project is still in progress and concentrates 2021 in the integration of the Vicon software Tracker, which is used in the Robot and Human Motion lab at the DHBW-Karlsruhe.
Changed
Changed
Fixed
Added
Changed
Added
Planed/known bugs
Added
Changed
Added
Changed
Removed
Fixed
Added
Changed
Removed
Fixed
At the preset, I have started to make the usage of the current (already extended) version of the software possible outside the Heidelberg Motionlab. To do this, the documentation must be extended and components which are very specific for the Heidelberg Motionlab must be removed. Based on the experiences made with the application of the software in Schulthess clinics in Zürich - Swizerland and at Hertie institute Tübingen - Germany I move the development of the software into a direction to create a generic tool, which can be used by the customers with minimal support. This is also driven by the usage of the software in the Robot and Human Motion Lab at Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State Universtity Karlsruhe.
If you are interested in starting with upperbody motion analysis you can ask Oliver Rettig for an introduction in measuring and modelling details, in the usage of the Upperlimb software and for adaptions to your specific research interests. Professional support and consulting is available.
It is planed to find a funding, to build a basis version of Upperlimb, open sourced as a whole. An extended version, inclusive professional support, cauld be made commerically available and supported in the future.