Gait Analysis with Kinamoto™ Combines Biomechanical Gait Analysis with HMD Virtual Reality
Have you ever wondered how virtual reality (VR) could enhance your biomechanical gait research? Traditional biomechanics studies provide valuable insights, but integrating VR opens the door to new possibilities—allowing researchers to study human movement in dynamic, immersive environments. Kinamoto™ is designed to bridge this gap, offering a seamless VR solution that enhances gait research with fully customizable virtual scenes, keypoint tracking, and user-defined treadmill protocols.
The software is currently available everywhere and Bertec has already deployed to BETA users, including Sasha Voloshina, PhD from UC Irvine “We're thrilled to be one of the first to have Kinamoto in our research lab, and we're looking forward to gathering new insights,” said Voloshina. The Immersive Labs HMD is currently only available in the U.S.
Biomechanical Gait Research and Virtual Reality: Unlock New Possibilities
Kinamoto brings advanced VR capabilities to biomechanical gait studies with the Bertec Immersive Labs Head Mounted Display (HMD) and Camera Hub add-on to the Fully Instrumented Treadmill v5 (FIT5). With Kinamoto’s Custom Scene Development Kit, researchers can create and upload their own Unity® scenes and have full control over their virtual environments.
Whether designing dynamic or static VR scenes, users can customize settings like scene velocity, audio, lighting, and path design. This flexibility ensures that every study can be tailored to specific research needs, from simulating complex environments to analyzing participant responses to challenges such as multitasking.
The Participant Monitoring feature enhances real-time interactivity by allowing researchers to view the virtual scene as participants experience it in the HMD. Live monitoring of step tracking and performance scores from obstacles or cognitive tasks ensures that researchers can adapt and fine-tune trials instantly. To further streamline workflows, the Treadmill VR Workspace offers intuitive tools for recentering the HMD or enabling Passthrough Mode, keeping participants comfortable and focused on the study.
Keypoint Tracking and Advanced Protocol Design
The Camera Hub enhances interactivity through video-based keypoint tracking, capturing the main joint locations of the body and tracking them within the VR scene using a 3D object for visual feedback. With the upgraded Protocol Builder, custom protocols can be designed to monitor these keypoints or force signals and automate changes in treadmill or scene behavior based on participant movement. Observe how participants respond in real-time to controlled visual or auditory stimuli during gait experiments with real-time data visualization and simultaneous data capture.
Gait Analysis and HMD Virtual Reality: A Powerful Combination
With its powerful tools for creating Unity® VR scenes, real-time participant monitoring, video-based keypoint tracking, and custom protocols, Kinamoto provides researchers with the flexibility to design controlled, repeatable gait experiments and incorporate virtual reality into their biomechanical gait research. This powerful platform is an all-in-one software solution that supports innovative approaches to studying human movement and balance, helping researchers achieve meaningful insights with greater efficiency.
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