ROMeasure: A Practical Solution For Accurate Range Of Motion Analysis Using A Smartwatch

Muskuloskeletal disorders produce a profound effect on osteokinematics of the human body. Range of Motion (ROM) is a very effective marker reflecting the health of affected joints and is estimated by orthopaedicians usually by performing manual measurements using a goniometer which is both inconvenient and lack the ability to peform an accurate, real time analysis of the full rotational movement. Motion sensors embedded in wearables have been researched successfully for ROM estimation, but not without some drawbacks which hinder their practical use in a medical scenario, which include need of multiple wearable sensors, low accuracy while estimating ROM in a horizontal plane, and questionable accuracy at extremely slow rotational speeds. This work proposes ‘ROMeasure’, a wearable-based ROM estimation solution which aims to address the above shortcomings. We discuss a novel approach using a single wrist-wearable leveraging the relative invariance in axis of rotation during ROM measurement using gyroscope sensor present onboard the wearable. We demonstrate our solution’s accuracy by performing different ROM rotations for elbow and shoulder joints using a smartwatch, with an angle-graduated board and goniometer as sources of ground truth measurement. Output parameters and a video feed of subject performing the movements is displayed on a dashboard in real-time which can be of great assistance to a specialist for analysing the motion, and also makes ROMeasure a great fit for a tele-health scenario.