The ankle joint complex is a common source of injury for various demographics and is often observed during gait analysis. I investigate using soft robotic sensors as a means for collecting kinematic data at the ankle joint complex. I validate the linearity of these sensors by measuring stretch against extension and against stretch from frontal and sagittal planar foot movements using a wooden ankle mockup. I then conduct a study involving ten participants who perform repetitive trials of four foot movements (plantarflexion, dorsiflexion, inversion and eversion) using ten different locations. Four optimal locations were identified for these movements based on linearity, accuracy, robustness, and consistency. Lastly, I validated soft robotic sensors against the human gait cycle. Twenty participants were recruited and performed twelve trials, walking across a flat surface and a cross-sloped surface while motion capture data and soft robotic sensor data was collected.

No description available.

Turning while walking is a crucial component of locomotion; yet, little is known about how the biomechanics of turning gait differ from those of straight walking. Moreover, it is unclear how populations with restricted gait ability, such as children with cerebral palsy (CP) adapt to turning, compared to their typically developing (TD) peers. Thus, the aims of this thesis were to quantify the biomechanical differences between turning gait and straight walking in TD children and to explore if further, pathology specific, changes present during turning in children with CP. Biomechanical data, including three-dimensional body motion, ground reaction forces, and muscle activity from both groups were collected during straight walking and 90 degree turning gait using motion capture technology. Experimental data were used to compute joint kinematics (angles) and joint kinetics (moments and power) as well as more novel measures to quantify turning fluency and dynamic stability. These data were also used to derive walking simulations using a musculo-skeletal model of the human body in order to quantify muscle contributions to medio-lateral center of mass (COM) acceleration. The results show that both groups preferred to redirect their body during turning about the inside, rather than the outside, limb (with respect to the turn center). For TD children, substantial biomechanical adaptations occurred during turning, compared to straight walking. Furthermore, turning gait simulations reveal that proximal (hip abductors) and distal (ankle plantarflexors) leg muscles were mainly responsible for the redirection of the COM towards the new walking direction during turning. For children with CP, the results suggest that turning gait may be better able to reveal gait abnormalities than straight walking for a number of kinematic and kinetic gait variables. Potentially, analysis of turning gait could improve the identification and management of gait abnormalities in children with CP.

Nous nous intéressons à l'acquisition automatique de mouvements 3D de personnes. Cette opération doit être réalisée sans un équipement spécialisé (marqueurs ou habillage spécifique), pour rendre son utilisation générale, sous la contrainte du temps réel. Pour répondre à ces questions, nous sommes amenés à traiter de la reconstruction et l'analyse de la forme 3D. Concernant le problème de reconstruction 3D en temps réel d'entités en mouvement à partir de plusieurs vues, les approches existantes font souvent appel à des calculs complexes incompatibles avec la contrainte du temps réel. Les approches du type SFS offrent un compromis intéressant entre efficacité algorithmique et précision. Ces dernières utilisent les silhouettes issues de chaque caméra pour proposer un volume englobant des objets. Cependant elles nécessitent un environnement particulièrement contraint, dont le placement minutieux des caméras. Les travaux présentés dans ce manuscrit généralisent l'utilisation des approches SFS à des environnements peu contrôlés. L'acquisition du mouvement revient à déterminer les paramètres offrant la meilleure corrélation entre le modèle et la reconstruction 3D. Notre objectif étant le suivi temps réel, nous proposons des méthodes qui offrent la précision requise et le temps réel. Couplé à un suivi temporel par filtre de Kalman, à un recalage d'objets géométriques simples (ellipsoïdes, sphères, etc.), nous proposons un système temps réel, offrant une erreur de l'ordre de 6%.De par sa robustesse, il permet le suivi simultané de plusieurs personnes, même lors de contacts. Les résultats obtenus ouvrent des perspectives à un transfert vers des applications grand public / We aim at automatically capturing 3D motion of persons without markers. To make it flexible, and to consider interactive applications, we address real-time solution, without specialized instrumentation. Real-time body estimation and shape analyze lead to home motion capture application. We begin by addressing the problem of 3D real-time reconstruction of moving objects from multiple views. Existing approaches often involve complex computation methods, making them incompatible with real-time constraints. Shape-From-Silhouette (SFS) approaches provide interesting compromise between algorithm efficiency and accuracy. They estimate 3D objects from their silhouettes in each camera. However they require constrained environments and cameras placement. The works presented in this document generalize the use of SFS approaches to uncontrolled environments. The main methods of marker-less motion capture, are based on parametric modeling of the human body. The acquisition of movement goal is to determine the parameters that provide the best correlation between the model and the 3D reconstruction.The following approaches, more robust, use natural markings of the body extremities: the skin. Coupled with a temporal Kalman filter, a registration of simple geometric objects, or an ellipsoids' decomposition, we have proposed two real-time approaches, providing a mean error of 6%. Thanks to the approach robustness, it allows the simultaneous monitoring of several people even in contacts. The results obtained open up prospects for a transfer to home applications

Dans cette thèse nous intéressons à la conception d'un robot mobile capable d’analyser le comportement et le mouvement d’une personne en environnement intérieur et encombré, par exemple le domicile d’une personne âgée. Plus précisément, notre objectif est de doter le robot des capacités de perception visuelle de la posture humaine de façon à mieux maîtriser certaines situations qui nécessitent de comprendre l’intention des personnes avec lesquelles le robot interagit, ou encore de détecter des situations à risques comme les chutes ou encore d’analyser les capacités motrices des personnes dont il a la garde. Le suivi de la posture dans un environnement dynamique et encombré relève plusieurs défis notamment l'apprentissage en continue du fond de la scène et l'extraction la silhouette qui peut être partiellement observable lorsque la personne est dans des endroits occultés. Ces difficultés rendent le suivi de la posture une tâche difficile. La majorité des méthodes existantes, supposent que la scène est statique et la personne est toujours visible en entier. Ces approches ne sont pas adaptées pour fonctionner dans des conditions réelles. Nous proposons, dans cette thèse, un nouveau système de suivi capable de suivre la posture de la personne dans ces conditions réelles. Notre approche utilise une grille d'occupation avec un modèle de Markov caché pour apprendre en continu l'évolution de la scène et d'extraire la silhouette, ensuite un algorithme de filtrage particulaire hiérarchique est utilisé pour reconstruire la posture. Nous proposons aussi un nouvel algorithme de gestion d'occlusion capable d'identifier et d'exclure les parties du corps cachées du processus de l'estimation de la pose. Finalement, nous avons proposé une base de données contenant des images RGB-D avec la vérité-terrain dans le but d'établir une nouvelle référence pour l'évaluation des systèmes de capture de mouvement dans un environnement réel avec occlusions. La vérité-terrain est obtenue à partir d'un système de capture de mouvement à base de marqueur de haute précision avec huit caméras infrarouges. L'ensemble des données est disponible en ligne. La deuxième contribution de cette thèse, est le développement d'une méthode de localisation visuelle à partir d'une caméra du type RGB-D montée sur un robot qui se déplace dans un environnement dynamique. En effet, le système de capture de mouvement que nous avons développé doit équiper un robot se déplaçant dans une scène. Ainsi, l'estimation de mouvement du robot est importante pour garantir une extraction de silhouette correcte pour le suivi. La difficulté majeure de la localisation d'une caméra dans un environnement dynamique, est que les objets mobiles de la scène induisent un mouvement supplémentaire qui génère des pixels aberrants. Ces pixels doivent être exclus du processus de l'estimation du mouvement de la caméra. Nous proposons ainsi une extension de la méthode de localisation dense basée sur le flux optique pour isoler les pixels aberrants en utilisant l'algorithme de RANSAC. / In this thesis we are interested in designing a mobile robot able to analyze the behavior and movement of a a person in indoor and cluttered environment. Our goal is to equip the robot by visual perception capabilities of the human posture to better analyze situations that require understanding of person with which the robot interacts, or detect risk situations such as falls or analyze motor skills of the person. Motion capture in a dynamic and crowded environment raises multiple challenges such as learning the background of the environment and extracting the silhouette that can be partially observable when the person is in hidden places. These difficulties make motion capture difficult. Most of existing methods assume that the scene is static and the person is always fully visible by the camera. These approaches are not able to work in such realistic conditions. In this thesis, We propose a new motion capture system capable of tracking a person in realistic world conditions. Our approach uses a 3D occupancy grid with a hidden Markov model to continuously learn the changing background of the scene and to extract silhouette of the person, then a hierarchical particle filtering algorithm is used to reconstruct the posture. We propose a novel occlusion management algorithm able to identify and discards hidden body parts of the person from process of the pose estimation. We also proposed a new database containing RGBD images with ground truth data in order to establish a new benchmark for the assessment of motion capture systems in a real environment with occlusions. The ground truth is obtained from a motion capture system based on high-precision marker with eight infrared cameras. All data is available online. The second contribution of this thesis is the development of a new visual odometry method to localize an RGB-D camera mounted on a robot moving in a dynamic environment. The major difficulty of the localization in a dynamic environment, is that mobile objects in the scene induce additional movement that generates outliers pixels. These pixels should be excluded from the camera motion estimation process in order to produce accurate and precise localization. We thus propose an extension of the dense localization method based on the optical flow method to remove outliers pixels using the RANSAC algorithm.

Esta pesquisa faz parte de um projeto que visa verificar a existência de variação linguística relacionada à orientação sexual do surdo sinalizante. Neste trabalho são apresentados os dois primeiros estudos que compõem o projeto: criação de um corpus linguístico com registro de sinalização de surdos gays e heterossexuais obtidos por sistema de captura de movimentos e análise da percepção linguística de surdos e ouvintes fluentes em libras (língua brasileira de sinais) sobre estímulos construídos com o mesmo sistema. O terceiro e último estudo será realizado futuramente por meio da análise dos dados coletados no primeiro estudo. A criação do corpus linguístico se baseou no modelo de descrição articulatória proposto por Barbosa, Temoteo e Rizzo (2015) e na análise goniométrica método utilizado para medir os ângulos articulares do corpo , e consistiu na coleta de informações sobre os ângulos formados pelos cinco movimentos realizados pelos articuladores braço e antebraço (abdução horizontal do braço, abdução vertical do braço, rotação do braço, rotação do antebraço e flexão do cotovelo), tomando como base os recursos do sistema de captura de movimentos. As informações geradas pelo sistema de captura de movimentos forneceram dados para comparação e análise das variações dos ângulos formados na produção de sinais dos surdos gays e heterossexuais. O estudo de percepção foi realizado por meio da aplicação de questionários com o objetivo de verificar a percepção dos participantes em relação à feminilidade e à orientação sexual do surdo sinalizante e à qualidade da transmissão da mensagem. Os resultados do estudo de percepção apontaram que os surdos gays foram percebidos como mais femininos que os surdos heterossexuais e que não houve diferença significativa na percepção da orientação sexual (gay) entre os surdos gays e heterossexuais. / This research is part of a project that aims to verify the existence of linguistic variation related to deaf peoples sexual orientation. In this work the first two studies that compose the project were presented: the creation of a linguistic corpus with gay and heterosexual deaf signaling obtained by motion capture system and the analysis of the linguistic perception of deaf and hearing people fluent in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) on the stimuli built with the same system. The third and last study will be performed through the analysis of the data collected in the first study. The creation of the linguistic corpus was based on the model of articulatory description proposed by Barbosa, Temoteo e Rizzo (2015) and in the goniometric analysis method used to measure the articular angles of the body and it consisted in collecting information about the angles formed by the five movements performed by the articulators arm and forearm (horizontal abduction of the arm, vertical abduction of the arm, rotation of the arm, rotation of the forearm and elbow flexion), based on the resources of the motion capture system. The information generated by the motion capture system provided data to compare and analyze the angles variation formed in the production of signs by gay and heterosexual deaf men. The perception study was carried out through the application of questionnaires that aimed to test the participants\' perception regarding the femininity and the sexual orientation of the deaf signer and the quality of message transmission. The results of the perception study indicated that deaf gay men were perceived as more feminine than heterosexual deaf men and that there was no significant difference in the perception of gay sexual orientation among gay and heterosexual deaf men.

La simulation du geste humain est une thématique de recherche importante et trouve notamment une application dans l'analyse ergonomique pour l'aide à la conception de postes de travail. Le sujet de cette thèse concerne la génération automatique de tâches d'atteinte dans le plan horizontal pour un humanoïde. Ces dernières, à partir d'un objectif exprimé dans l'espace de la tâche, requièrent une coordination de l'ensemble des liaisons. L'une des principales difficultés rencontrées lors de la simulation de gestes réalistes est liée à la redondance naturelle de l'humain. Notre démarche est focalisée principalement sur deux aspects : - le mouvement de la main dans l'espace opérationnel (trajectoire spatiale et profil temporel), - la coordination des différentes sous-chaînes cinématiques. Afin de caractériser le mouvement humain, nous avons mené une campagne de capture de mouvements pour des gestes d'atteinte contraignant la position et l'orientation de la main dans le plan horizontal. Ces acquisitions nous ont permis de connaître l'évolution spatiale et temporelle de la main dans l'espace de la tâche, en translation et en rotation. Ces données acquises couplées à une méthode de rejeu ont également permis d'analyser les relations intrinsèques qui lient l'espace de la tâche à l'espace articulaire du mannequin. Le schéma de génération automatique de mouvements réalistes est basé sur une pile de tâche avec une approche cinématique. L'hypothèse retenue pour simuler le geste est de suivre le chemin le plus court dans l'espace de la tâche tout en bornant le coût dans l'espace articulaire. Un ensemble de paramètres permet de régler le schéma. Il en résulte une cartographie de réglages qui permet de simuler une classe de mouvements réalistes. Enfin, ce schéma de génération automatique de mouvements réalistes est validé par une comparaison quantitative et qualitative entre la simulation et le geste humain. / The simulation of human movement is an active theme of research, particularly in ergonomic analysis to aid in the design of workstations. The aim of this thesis concerns the automatic generation of reaching tasks in the horizontal plane for a virtual humanoid. An objective expressed in the task space, requires coordination of all joints of the mannequin. The main difficulties encountered in the simulation of realistic movements is related to the natural redundancy of the human. Our approach is focused mainly on two aspects: - Motion of the hand's operator in the task space (spatial and temporal aspect), - Coordination of all kinematic chains. To characterize human movement, we conducted a set of motion capture with position and orientation constraints of the hand in the horizontal plane. These acquisitions allowed to know the spatial and temporal evolution of the hand in the task space, for translation and rotation aspects. These acquired data were coupled with a playback method to analyze the intrinsic relations that link the task space to joint space of the model. The automatic generation scheme of realistic motion is based on a stack of task with a kinematic approach. The assumption used to simulate the action is to follow the shortest path in the task space while limiting the cost in the joint space. The scheme is characterized by a set of parameters. A global map of parameter adjustment enables the simulation of a class of realistic movements. Finally, this scheme is validated quantitatively and qualitatively with comparison between the simulation and the human gesture.

Le principal objectif de cette thèse a été d'utiliser des outils numériques en sciences pour l'ingénieur dans le cadre d'applications médicales dont le but était de mieux appréhender la pathogénie des troubles fonctionnels, et de développer de nouvelles techniques thérapeutiques (sphère orofaciale). Dans un premier temps l'outil éléments finis s'appuyant sur des données rhéologiques a été utilisé afin de mieux appréhender la problématique de l'articulation temporo-mandibulaire. Les résultats numériques associés à une captation du mouvement de la mandibule ont permis de mieux comprendre, au sens, mécanique certains aspects mandibulaires. Par ailleurs, dans un deuxième temps, l'outil CAO a été mis en œuvre afin d'aider la préparation de la chirurgie maxillofaciale. Cette nouvelle approche a permis de mettre en œuvre une nouvelle méthodologie en chirurgie des tumeurs interruptrices en améliorant (i) le contrôle du résultat esthétique, (ii) la réduction du temps opératoire et (iii) le respect de la bonne congruence de l'ATM. / The main objective of this thesis was to use numerical engineering softwares in the framework of medical applications whose purpose was to understand the pathogenesis functional disorders, and to develop new therapeutic techniques (orofacial sphere). At first, finite elements tools based on rheological data has been used to understand the problem of TMJ. Numerical results associated with motion capture of the mandible have a better understanding the mandibular mechanical aspects. Moreover, in a second step, the CAD tools implemented to assist the preparation of the maxillofacial surgery. This new approach allowed a new methodology surgery interrupter tumors improving (i) controling the esthetic result, (ii) reducing the operating time and (iii) respecting a good TMJ congruence.

The execution of this thesis was based on one primare question and threesecondary questions: Primary question at issue: Is it possible to develop a system to previsualize computer generatedgraphics in real-time on a film set with available equipment on theuniversity? Secondary questions at issue: Is it possible to sync the camera feed with the motions of the HTC Vive to getan acceptable result in the game engine with existing equipment? Will the result be able to be integrated with the Computer Graphicsprogramme at LTU? How much access to control and manipulate the previsualized computergenerated graphics, while filming can be achieved? The purpose of this report is to try a method with the available equipment, toproduce a prototype of a tool to previsualize computer generated graphics inreal-time. The equipment used for the method was a computer, web camera, HTC Vive anda green screen. All the equipment was linked together with the game engineUnity. This resulted in a prototype of a tool that in real-time can mimic themotions of the camera, replace colored background and has the feature of realtimescene editing, as the previsualization runs. / Utförandet av detta examensarbete baserades på en primär frågeställning, samttre ytterligare sekundära frågor: Primär frågeställning: Kan man med hjälp av befintlig utrustning på universitetet ta fram enmodell för att previsualisera datorgenererad grafik i real-tid vid en inspelning? Sekundära frågeställningar: Kommer det gå att synka bild från webcamera med fångade rörelser frånHTC Vive och få ett godtagbart resultat från spelmotorn med befintligutrustning? Kan man använda resultatet som ett verktyg för utbildningen Datorgrafikpå LTU? Hur mycket kontroll för den förhandsvisade grafiken går att uppnå i realtid? Syftet med rapporten är att framställa och bepröva en prototyp av en produkt föratt kunna förhandsvisa datorgenererad grafik i real-tid, med befintlig utrustning. Metoden utövades med en dator, web kamera, HTC Vive och en green screen.Genom att använda spelmotorn Unity knöts utrustningen samman för attresultera i en prototyp som i real-tid fångar kamerans rörelser, ersätter färgadbakgrund och kan manipuleras direkt vid inspelning.

Esta pesquisa faz parte de um projeto que visa verificar a existência de variação linguística relacionada à orientação sexual do surdo sinalizante. Neste trabalho são apresentados os dois primeiros estudos que compõem o projeto: criação de um corpus linguístico com registro de sinalização de surdos gays e heterossexuais obtidos por sistema de captura de movimentos e análise da percepção linguística de surdos e ouvintes fluentes em libras (língua brasileira de sinais) sobre estímulos construídos com o mesmo sistema. O terceiro e último estudo será realizado futuramente por meio da análise dos dados coletados no primeiro estudo. A criação do corpus linguístico se baseou no modelo de descrição articulatória proposto por Barbosa, Temoteo e Rizzo (2015) e na análise goniométrica método utilizado para medir os ângulos articulares do corpo , e consistiu na coleta de informações sobre os ângulos formados pelos cinco movimentos realizados pelos articuladores braço e antebraço (abdução horizontal do braço, abdução vertical do braço, rotação do braço, rotação do antebraço e flexão do cotovelo), tomando como base os recursos do sistema de captura de movimentos. As informações geradas pelo sistema de captura de movimentos forneceram dados para comparação e análise das variações dos ângulos formados na produção de sinais dos surdos gays e heterossexuais. O estudo de percepção foi realizado por meio da aplicação de questionários com o objetivo de verificar a percepção dos participantes em relação à feminilidade e à orientação sexual do surdo sinalizante e à qualidade da transmissão da mensagem. Os resultados do estudo de percepção apontaram que os surdos gays foram percebidos como mais femininos que os surdos heterossexuais e que não houve diferença significativa na percepção da orientação sexual (gay) entre os surdos gays e heterossexuais. / This research is part of a project that aims to verify the existence of linguistic variation related to deaf peoples sexual orientation. In this work the first two studies that compose the project were presented: the creation of a linguistic corpus with gay and heterosexual deaf signaling obtained by motion capture system and the analysis of the linguistic perception of deaf and hearing people fluent in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) on the stimuli built with the same system. The third and last study will be performed through the analysis of the data collected in the first study. The creation of the linguistic corpus was based on the model of articulatory description proposed by Barbosa, Temoteo e Rizzo (2015) and in the goniometric analysis method used to measure the articular angles of the body and it consisted in collecting information about the angles formed by the five movements performed by the articulators arm and forearm (horizontal abduction of the arm, vertical abduction of the arm, rotation of the arm, rotation of the forearm and elbow flexion), based on the resources of the motion capture system. The information generated by the motion capture system provided data to compare and analyze the angles variation formed in the production of signs by gay and heterosexual deaf men. The perception study was carried out through the application of questionnaires that aimed to test the participants\' perception regarding the femininity and the sexual orientation of the deaf signer and the quality of message transmission. The results of the perception study indicated that deaf gay men were perceived as more feminine than heterosexual deaf men and that there was no significant difference in the perception of gay sexual orientation among gay and heterosexual deaf men.