CALL FOR ESB 2025 PRE-COURSES
If you are interested to organise a pre-course at ESB 2025 in Zurich, you can submit your proposal by 30th September 2024. Limited timeslots are available.
Fill in the application form and email it to info@esbiomech2025.org.
Fill in the application form and email it to info@esbiomech2025.org.
ESB 2025 interactive pre-courses are mainly addressed to graduate students, post-docs, and young researchers.
Date: Sunday 6th July, 2025
Place: ETH Zurich Main Building
Registration for pre-courses is needed.
Despite ISB recommendations aiming to standardise the reporting of kinematic signals, a lack of consensus around joint coordinate frame definitions remains. An approach capable of accommodating different axis methods and reconciling these differences in frame orientation and position is therefore crucial. In this workshop, we present REFRAME (REference FRame Alignment MEthod), an approach capable of providing kinematic patterns that can be reliably compared without requiring exact knowledge of the different segment frame definitions. REFRAME can thus enable the consistent interpretation and comparison of joint kinematics derived using different approaches and collected in different labs.
Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a technique based on the recording of images of the surface of a test object exhibiting a contrasted patern of grey levels. Images are recorded either with one (2D) or two (Stereo) cameras and the algorithm processes the images for deformation. This provides thousands of individual displacement values at the studied surface. This can then be used to identify material behaviour, validate numerical models, explore material heterogeneities. This course aims a providing a primer of DIC to this audience to help potential users identify potential areas of use.
Sunday 30th June
Background
Kinematic analysis involves calculating signals from optical or inertial datapoints to represent the relative movement of joint segments. The exact choice of local segment frame orientation and position in a bone segment has been shown to drastically influence the shape and magnitude of the associated kinematic signals, making the consistent interpretation of the underlying joint motion a challenge. Despite ISB recommendations aiming to standardise the reporting of these signals, a lack of consensus around joint coordinate frame definitions remains. An approach capable of accommodating different analytical methods and ultimately reconciling these differences in frame alignment, while ensuring consistent interpretations, is therefore crucial.
In this workshop, we present REFRAME (REference FRame Alignment MEthod), an approach to minimise cross-talk between axes of a movement, and thereby provide kinematic patterns that can be reliably compared without requiring direct knowledge of the relative poses of the different segment frames. In this manner, REFRAME can enable the consistent interpretation and comparison of joint kinematics derived using different approaches and collected in different labs.
Content and learning objectives
1. Increase awareness of the substantial effect that even minor differences in reference frame orientation and position have on the shape and magnitude of kinematic signals, and highlight why it is essential that researchers consider these effects before concluding that two sets of kinematic signals that look different actually represent different underlying joint motion.
2. Explain how the REference FRame Alignment MEthod (REFRAME) can be used to remove artefact caused by differences in frame alignment and account for such potential inconsistencies in motion analysis – and thereby provide researchers with the tools necessary to reach more robust and reproducible conclusions regarding joint kinematics.
Structure and duration:
Part I – Introductory Lecture
a. Introduction to the problem (Prof. Dr. William R. Taylor)
b. Method explanation (Adrian Sauer)
c. Practical implications and examples (Ariana Ortigas Vásquez)
Part II – Q & A Panel (All)
Part III – Hands-on application session with own data (Adrian Sauer and Ariana Ortigas Vásquez)
Potential attendees of this pre-course are all researchers working with kinematic signals to represent joint motion. Since the method can be ubiquitously applied to nearly all joint kinematic data, the approach is of interest to engineers, researchers, and clinicians alike.
For active participation in Part III of the workshop, participants should have:
• Laptop
• Matlab License
• Optimization Toolbox
Prof. Dr. William R. Taylor, Laboratory for Movement Biomechanics, ETH Zürich
William (Bill) has been Professor of Movement Biomechanics at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, since 2012. His research focuses on the study of kinematics and kinetics in healthy, reconstructed and replaced joints. Recent laboratory developments include the construction of a unique tracking dual-plane fluoroscope for the accurate assessment of knee joint kinematics throughout complete cycles of dynamic activities of daily living.
Ariana Ortigas Vásquez, Doctoral Candidate (LMU Munich), Aesculap AG, Tuttlingen, Germany
After obtaining a Bachelor degree in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford University, Ariana completed her Master at ETH Zürich, during which she carried out practical work at the Schulthess Clinic and Aesculap. Currently part of the R&D department at Aesculap, she is pursuing her PhD working on the development of REFRAME, including its clinical, industrial, and research applications.
Adrian Sauer, Research Engineer & Postdoctoral Researcher, Aesculap AG, Tuttlingen, Germany
Currently a research engineer in the R&D department at Aesculap, Adrian holds multiple Bachelor and Master degrees from the KIT and FernUni Hagen (in Mechanical Engineering, Economics, and Mathematics). His PhD explored the (bio)mechanics of the patellofemoral joint. Adrian is especially interested in connecting methods from different fields to gain value for biomechanics