Human Spine Profile Measurement by Means of Stereo Vision

Measurement of human spinal profile is useful in spinal deformation detection and ergonomic investigation. Usually, the measurement is based on radiological test, which is in company with invasive radiation. This paper proposes a quantitative, objective measurement method by means of stereo vision. While measuring, markers having three different colors, red, green, and blue, are sequentially adhered on the skin along the process points of lower cervical and upper thoracic spine. The color difference among the different markers and human skin is very significant, so that the position of a marker can be easily extracted from background. Therefore, the corresponding pixels are easily identified in two images acquired by two cameras. In this way, the spinal profile is measured in 3D. Accordingly, a sensor is implemented and experiments are conducted