A new approach to human motion quality measurement

Describes an investigation of a strategy for describing and measuring motion quality based on the principles of general systems performance theory (GSPT) and an experimental investigation of this strategy. A set of primitives was determined, called "dimensions of performance" (DOPs), each of which describes a unique aspect of how well a motion system performs its task (speed, accuracy, smoothness and volume appropriateness). A motion quality measure was created based on a multiplicative combination of DOP measures. In an evaluation study, resource utilization associated with the DOPs were measured during a series of human motion tests, and various product-based DOP combinations were calculated. Motion quality ratings of the same tests by clinicians on a "visual analogue scale" were used as a "gold standard". Based on agreement between human raters and the respective measures tested, the DOPs were found to correspond to important aspects of motion quality, and the GSPT product combination approach to the multiplicative combination of all DOPs was supported and was shown to offer a valid measure of overall motion quality.