Patent ID: 7931604
Filing Date: 2011-04-26
Classification: A61B,G09B

Abstract:
1. A method for computing, measuring, recording and viewing in real time muscle forces and joint moments of a body in motion, employing a system for visual display and output of anatomical forces, said system comprising: a motion capture system for collecting and recording real time position data; a computer receiving data from said motion capture system and deriving rotational data therefrom; a first look up table comprising biomechanical body skeleton definition and marker set templates, a second look up table comprising body mass properties, and a third look up table comprising muscle paths; a computational pipeline disposed on said computer; and a computer display unit for displaying color animation, said method comprising: placing the body in motion within range of the motion capture system; collecting and recording in real time three dimensional coordinates of selected marker points on the body in motion; calculating in real time a skeleton pose of the body in motion from the three dimensional coordinates and from said first look up table; calculating in real time joint moments of the body using the skeleton pose of the body in motion, a first derivative velocity of the skeleton pose, a second derivative acceleration of the skeleton pose, force vectors representing external forces affecting the body in motion, and body mass properties from said second look up table; calculating in real time muscle lengths and muscle moment arms using the skeleton pose and said third look up table; calculating in real time muscle forces using the joint moments, muscle lengths and muscle moment arms, by using quadratic programming and a neural network optimization algorithm for said quadratic programming; and generating and displaying in real time from the calculated muscle forces while the body in motion remains in motion, a color animation of a muscle model whereby a relative degree of muscle force of the body in motion is displayed by a relative coloring of the respective muscles of the color animation.