Lab Overview

The Motion Analysis Lab was established in September 1998.  Dr. Ann Reinthal is the laboratory director.   The lab is used primarily for research, but also for patient treatment, student clinical learning, and classroom instruction on specialized equipment, particularly for therapeutic exercise, balance, and neuro-rehab courses. The primary lines of research of the lab involve upper extremity rehabilitation, particularly among individuals who have had a stroke, and balance training for fall prevention. These have led to projects in the use of video gaming for rehabilitation, including for balance, mobility and upper extremity rehab; the use of small, readily available sensors for monitoring exercise; the measurement or quantification of patient engagement in therapy or therapeutic tasks; proactive vs. reactive balance; measurement of balance dosage, particularly intensity; knowledge translation resources to assist clinicians in using video games most effectively; and projects using sensors to provide feedback to healthcare workers for safer job performance.  

The Motion Analysis Lab currently uses a passive, configurable, six-camera, 3-dimensional motion capture and analysis system (Motion Analysis Corporation.) This is synchronized with two-AMTI force plates and two, eight-channel EMG units with additional analysis software for gait, upper extremity, and EMG analysis.  

The motion capture volume is optimized for gait and whole body activities.  It is equipped with a ceiling track and fall-arresting harness system that allows both a 24 foot walkway and in-place harness supported activities.  The harness is equipped with a load cell that is synchronized with the other data collection.  Moveable equipment allows the walkway to be used also to study gait-induced slips with the ceiling track/harness and with force plate, EMG, load cell and motion data collection.  A standing-slip induction system has harness, load cell, motion and EMG data collection capability.  In addition, a less restrictive, fall arresting harness and frame are available which allow free movement in all directions for mobility and higher level balance activities, including clinical balance testing and very intense proactive balance training.  

There are multiple Kinect and Wii gaming systems, as well as a wide array of balance training surfaces (foam, wobble boards, bosu balls, etc) and off-the-shelf and custom game adaptations and manipulanda, particularly for individuals with stroke.   There are also multiple Kinect cameras running on custom developed software for movement display and skeleton capture and analysis.

The lab has isokinetic testing equipment and two treadmills, one of which is equipped with Lite-Gait suspended ambulation equipment.  There is treatment space, including private areas, plinths and hi-low tables for provision of therapeutic techniques or exercises in conjunction with or as part of study activities. Equipment is available in an adjoining lab to measure energy metabolism and standard therapeutic monitoring equipment and modalities are available in the lab or in adjoining DPT program spaces.  There are workspaces and software licensed computers available for student use.  

Dr's Reinthal and Espy are part of the CSU Center for Human Machine Systems. Collaborations in the lab have include faculty from CSU's College of Engineering, as well as from Math, Health Sciences, Nursing, Health and Human Performance, and Occupational Therapy. There are also external collaborations with clinicians and researchers in the Cleveland area, nationally, and internationally.

Individual projects are detailed on their own pages.  Please see the directory to the right under "Projects"