Automatic Image-Capture and Angle Tracking System Applied on Functional Movement Screening for Athletes

Abstract

In recent years, the Functional Movement Screen (abbreviation: FMS) has been used to assess athletes’ movement patterns and quality in recent years. However, the score of FMS system are assessed by manual observation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop an automatic Image-capture and angle tracking system to assist and asses the movement pattern for athletes by comparing the results when using self-made angle tracking system and free Kinovea motion analysis system during performing the FMS screen. Twelve volleyball athletes and 12 track and field athletes are recruited in our study. Two webcams were placed in front and on the side of FMS equipment to capture the image and body angles respectively. In addition, one of the researchers manually loaded the recorded image into free motion analysis software (Kinovea, Vision 8.25) to capture and mark the angle. The results were shown that a moderate to high positive correlation of the joint angles between 2 systems in most of the FMS movement patterns $(p\lt.05)$. When compared with the volleyball and track and field athletes, there were significantly different in the hip and ankle angle of deep squat, the hip and knee angle of the in-line lunge, and shank angle of hurdle step $(p\lt.05)$. In conclusion, the advantage of the automatic image-capture and angle tracking system applied on FMS are included automatic image recognition and labelled, fast and accuracy of angle tracking, data reports exported, and inexpensive equipment. The automatic image-capture and angle tracking system can assist the FMS to evaluate the bilateral limb or torso deficit or asymmetric in various sports.