Monocular Markerless Motion Capture Enables Quantitative Assessment of Upper Extremity Reachable Workspace
2026-02-13 • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
AI summaryⓘ
The authors tested a simple way to measure how far people can reach around their upper body using just one regular camera and AI to track movement without markers. They compared this method to a traditional, complex system with many cameras and markers while participants reached to targets in a virtual setup. The results showed that using a camera facing the person gave very close measurements to the traditional system, while a side camera was less accurate. This means the authors found a promising, easier way to assess upper body reach that could be used in clinics without complicated equipment.
Upper Extremity Reachable WorkspaceMarkerless Motion CaptureMonocular CameraBiomechanical AnalysisVirtual RealityMotion Capture SystemFrontal Camera ViewReachspaceArtificial IntelligenceClinical Assessment
Authors
Seth Donahue, J. D. Peiffer, R. Tyler Richardson, Yishan Zhong, Shaun Q. Y. Tan, Benoit Marteau, Stephanie R. Russo, May D. Wang, R. James Cotton, Ross Chafetz
Abstract
To validate a clinically accessible approach for quantifying the Upper Extremity Reachable Workspace (UERW) using a single (monocular) camera and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven Markerless Motion Capture (MMC) for biomechanical analysis. Objective assessment and validation of these techniques for specific clinically oriented tasks are crucial for their adoption in clinical motion analysis. AI-driven monocular MMC reduces the barriers to adoption in the clinic and has the potential to reduce the overhead for analysis of this common clinical assessment. Nine adult participants with no impairments performed the standardized UERW task, which entails reaching targets distributed across a virtual sphere centered on the torso, with targets displayed in a VR headset. Movements were simultaneously captured using a marker-based motion capture system and a set of eight FLIR cameras. We performed monocular video analysis on two of these video camera views to compare a frontal and offset camera configurations. The frontal camera orientation demonstrated strong agreement with the marker-based reference, exhibiting a minimal mean bias of $0.61 \pm 0.12$ \% reachspace reached per octanct (mean $\pm$ standard deviation). In contrast, the offset camera view underestimated the percent workspace reached ($-5.66 \pm 0.45$ \% reachspace reached). Conclusion: The findings support the feasibility of a frontal monocular camera configuration for UERW assessment, particularly for anterior workspace evaluation where agreement with marker-based motion capture was highest. The overall performance demonstrates clinical potential for practical, single-camera assessments. This study provides the first validation of monocular MMC system for the assessment of the UERW task. By reducing technical complexity, this approach enables broader implementation of quantitative upper extremity mobility assessment.