Accuracy of a posture measurement system for practitioners

• This paper presents an evaluation of a feasible inclinometer system, for measurement of static and dynamic body postures, which can be used by practitioners. The system, an inclinometer based on a triaxial USB-accelerometer and an analysis program (Excel Macro), was compared with measurements obtained with a gold standard, i.e. an optical 3D motion capture system. The angles obtained with the inclinometer, had a high correlation with the corresponding angles of the optical motion capture system, for static upper arm postures above 0.997 for both abduction and flexion. At fast arm movements, the absolute difference in angles between the two systems was low, 4.1°, 5.4° and 3.6° at the 10th, 50th and 90th percentile respectively. This study indicates that this feasible and inexpensive ($140) inclinometer system (USB-accelerometer and Excel Macro), can be used to obtain upper arm inclination data of quality comparable to that of many research studies where direct measurements have been used.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Movements

direct measurements

inclinometer

accelerometer

observation

arm elevation

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)