Pre-Conference Seminars

The pre-conference Seminars will be held in the Conference Room 1, Level 1 – floorplan is available here.

Please note that the Seminars run in parallel with the Gait Course.

Tuesday 19 September

08:30 – 12:30 Markerless Motion Analysis

13:30 – 17:30 Smart gaming for remote rehabilitation, a “hands-on” workshop

Wednesday 20 September

08:30 – 12:30 Improved understanding and treatment of altered muscle function in children with cerebral palsy

13:30 – 17:30 Introduction to musculoskeletal modeling

Tuesday 19 September at 08:30 – 12:30

Markerless Motion Analysis

Motion capture is an important component of gait analysis. The quality of the kinematic data obtained from motion capture systems directly affects the fidelity of the gait study. Marker-based motion analysis utilizes precision cameras that track the spatiotemporal propagation of markers that have been carefully positioned on the subject’s body. Two main limitations of this method are the high cost of the imaging setup along with the high level of experience, skill and time dedication required in the marker placement process. These factors constrain the data acquisition component of gait analysis to only occur in highly specialized laboratories, which might not always be accessible to a patient affected by a gait disorder. Additionally, in some cases, the marker-placement process can be challenging for the patient who has to stand upright for a prolonged amount of time.

Markerless Motion Analysis can help eliminate the above problems since gait kinematic measurements are obtained via a pose detection library leveraging deep learning to identify key points on every captured frame of the human body. The main advantage of this method is the straightforward data acquisition process, where multiple synchronized videos that show the patient walking from different viewing angles are sufficient to obtain a 3D stick-figure of their gait. Additionally, the imaging setup in this method can be up to two orders of magnitude less expensive compared to marker-based methods.

In the Markerless Motion Analysis workshop we will go through the whole framework of motion analysis, providing the theoretical background as well as the software tools involved in the process. The workshop will guide the attendees through the milestones of:

• camera selection,
• camera setup and calibration,
• video synchronization,
• keypoint detection,
• pose reconstruction,
• utilization of state-of-the-art vision methods to improve the reconstruction accuracy,
• application of inverse kinematics and inverse dynamics in obtaining significant dynamic data from the 3D trajectories.

The workshop will showcase the portability and accessibility of the framework, and demonstrate a real-life example case, to explain how it can be of use to medical professionals.

The workshop is organized by the Control Systems Laboratory of the National Technical University of Athens, in Greece. The presenters’ specialization is in robotics and in computer vision. The workshop aims to present and explain the technical aspects of the framework, and to introduce the participants to the software tools. As such, it is designed to appeal to medical professionals as well as to engineers, with various levels of experience.

Tuesday 19 September at 13:30 – 17:30

Smart gaming for remote rehabilitation, a “hands-on” workshop

Remote rehabilitation is an attractive concept because it enables patients to perform therapeutic exercises from home, under the direct supervision of their therapist. When the exercises are packaged as smart games, playing with the therapist or with other patients remotely adds a strong motivational element. In spite of the positives, the technical complexity of setting up remote rehabilitation limits its penetration into clinical practice. 

In this workshop after setting the context, we will guide you to build a simple smart game in Motek’s D-Flow environment to exercise coordinated movements of the arm/shoulder by playing Pong (celebrating the first video game’s 50^th anniversary). The hand movement will be tracked by Leap Motion Controllers to drive the paddles in real time, and you will code the game logic in Lua. After building the single player variant, you will connect to another “remote” player through a local wireless network. 

This workshop will be of interest to the more technically minded movement analyst, but equally to the physiotherapist or surgeon who will learn first-hand what it takes to make it happen. No prior programming experience is required. 

We are working hard with the local organisers to realise our ambitious plan, but we also have several layers of fallback solutions to tackle any logistical or technical complications. Come back to this page to see the latest update as we move closer to the ESMAC week in September.

Update (15/07/2023): To whet your appetite, please see a video of the two-player Pong game developed in D-Flow, played over a WiFi network. After the workshop, two random winners will be drawn to receive their hand motion capture device to continue what we start in this session!

Both at: Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK. 

Remote contributor:

Dr Malcolm Hawken (BA Eng, PhD), Visiting Research Officer in Biomechanics, RISES, LJMU) 

Kindly supported by:

Wednesday 20 September at 08:30 – 12:30    FULLY BOOKED

Improved understanding and treatment of altered muscle function in children with cerebral palsy, by integrating macro- and microscopic muscle properties with neuromuscular symptoms

Short abstract

The purpose of this seminar is to describe a comprehensive picture of altered muscles in growing children with cerebral palsy (CP), by integrating micro- and macroscopic morphological muscle properties with neuromuscular clinical symptoms and functional performance, in relation to treatment. Micro- and macroscopic changes in lower and upper limb skeletal muscles of children with CP, compared to age-matched peers, along with quantitative data on muscle spasticity, weakness, contractures and gait deviations will be presented. Integrated longitudinal data will be used to characterize different clinical presentations of children with CP, illustrated with representative clinical cases. Envisioned pathways to optimize treatment at the muscular level, that eventually lead to improved movement patterns in CP, will be discussed.

Who can attend

The target audience include movement analysis specialists, physicians, physical therapists, and research professionals who wish to improve their knowledge on muscle behavior in children with CP. Participants will be encouraged to interpret integrated datasets from clinical cases.

Authors

A multidisciplinary team of clinical, translational and basic scientists will give a series of focused presentations, followed by time for Q&A and discussion. The presenting team represents a collaboration between different European research centers studying the morphology, behavior and plasticity of skeletal muscles in children with CP. Their expertise covers the entire picture, linking muscle behavior in gross motor function with detailed features at the neuromuscular, macroscopic, microscopic and molecular level, as well as features of muscle plasticity following different treatment strategies. This creates a unique multidisciplinary translational environment that may inspire a wide interest group of the ESMAC community and lively discussions on the complex nature of skeletal muscles in CP.

Presenting team:

• Kaat Desloovere, from the department of Rehabilitation Sciences and Department of Development and Regeneration of the University of Leuven, Belgium
• Lynn Bar-On, from the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences of the University of Ghent, Belgium
• Annemieke Buizer, from the Rehabilitation Medicine of the Amsterdam UMC and Amsterdam Movement Sciences, The Netherlands
• Annika Kruse and Martin Svehlik, from the Department of Biomechanics (Training and Movement Science of the University of Graz and the Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma of the Medical University of Graz, Austria
• Ferdinand Von Walden and Eva Pontén, from the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Wednesday 20 September at 13:30 – 17:30

Introduction to musculoskeletal modeling

OpenSim is an open source software system for biomechanical modeling, simulation and analysis. We will introduce OpenSim and demonstrate a typical musculoskeletal modeling workflow in OpenSim (using the GUI) with a hands-on example. Additionally, we give short presentations to highlight the added clinical value and potential of musculoskeletal simulations.

Participants should bring a laptop with OpenSim installed or be prepared to team up with other participants. OpenSim model files and setup files are written in xml mark down format. Notepad++ is a free text editor that makes it easier to view and edit these xml files.  During the workshop we will use Notepad++ to examine OpenSim files. Mokka can be used to visualize the input data (.c3d files). Hence, please download and install following software prior to the workshop.

• OpenSim latest version (https://simtk.org/frs/?group_id=91)
• Notepad++ (https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/v7.8/)
• Mokka (http://biomechanical-toolkit.github.io/)