Extract - The clinical objective
of the gait analysis laboratory, developed by United Technologies Corporation
(Hartford, Connecticut, USA) in 1980, at the Newington Children's Hospital is
to provide quantified assessments of human locomotion which assist in the orthopaedic
management of various paediatric gait pathologies. The motion measurement system
utilises a video-based data collection strategy similar to commercially available
systems for motion data collection, for example, Vicon (Oxford Metrics Limited,
Oxford, England). Anatomically aligned, passive retroreflective markers placed
on the subject are illuminated, detected and stored in dedicated camera hardware
while data are acquired from force platforms and EMG transducers. Three dimensional
marker position information is used to determine: i) the orientation of segmentally-embedded
co-ordinate systems, ii) instantaneous joint centre locations, and iii) joint
angles. Joint kinetics, i.e., moments and powers, may also be computed if valid
force plate data are collected.