Patent ID: 7502641
Filing Date: 2009-03-10
Classification: A61B,G06T

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for the measurement of skeletal joint motion in a subject comprising: a) a passive motion device for continuously moving a joint which comprises a horizontal platform base and a horizontal passive motion platform composed of a horizontal static platform which is rigidly connected to the upper lateral surface of the platform base and a horizontal laterally movable platform which is flexibly connected to the static platform or to the upper surface of the platform base, in which the static platform is adjacent to the laterally movable platform which together both form the passive motion platform, in which the movement of the laterally movable platform is continuously driven during sampling of images by a motor attached to the platform base where movement of the laterally movable platform is achieved by means of a control arm that operably connects the laterally moveable platform to the motor; b) an imaging device; and c) a processing system which comprises a computer incorporating a means for real time digital sampling of images of the continuously moving joint during a continuous movement of the joint, means for recording time code and data from the passive motion platform during the continuous movement of the passive motion platform; means for storage of these images at high resolution; means for recognising templates attributed to individual bones and tracking these automatically using cross-correlation functions; and means for geometric transformation of the positional data to graphically display their relative motion over time.