Posture Analysis and Range of Movement Estimation Using Depth Maps

World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the world population is affected of back pain during his life. Current practices to analyze back problems are expensive, subjective, and invasive. In this work, we propose a novel tool for posture and range of movement estimation based on the analysis of 3D information from depth maps. Given a set of keypoints defined by the user, RGB and depth data are aligned, depth surface is reconstructed, keypoints are matching using a novel point-to-point fitting procedure, and accurate measurements about posture, spinal curvature, and range of movement are computed. The system shows high precision and reliable measurements, being useful for posture reeducation purposes to prevent musculoskeletal disorders, such as back pain, as well as tracking the posture evolution of patients in rehabilitation treatments.