Biomechanics research involves a diverse range of kinematic, kinetics, and EMG (electromyogram) measurements that must be captured as accurately and efficiently as possible. Whether your experiment compares different subjects, or assesses how movement changes within one subject, the measurement system must accurately capture movement and synchronize different signals without interfering with the subjects ability to move. Setting up the experiment and post-processing its data shouldn’t take more time than actually conducting the experiment.
Benefit from advanced motion capture technology with this cost-effective tracker that delivers research-grade data and maximum quality.
Track and analyze kinetics and dynamic motion in real-time with Optotrak Certus – a powerful research-grade motion capture system that features exceptional spatial and temporal accuracy.
The Optotrak 3D measurement system tracks real-time movement with exceptional temporal accuracy and spatial resolution. The high-speed Optotrak optical tracker accurately captures a full range of movement throughout a large pre-calibrated measurement volume; everything from a small finger twitch to full-body motion is tracked.
Active Marker Technology at its Best
Using active marker technology, the Optotrak offers the best positional accuracy of any optical motion capture system. Lightweight markers are designed specifically to track human movement, with little inertia of their own; the markers will instantly follow the acceleration of the segment they are tracking. Unlike passive optical tracking systems, the Optotrak system eliminates the time, cost, and errors associated with marker sorting. Each marker is automatically identified and individually tracked – there are no misidentified or unidentified markers.
As an active optical tracking system, the Optotrak accurately captures marker positions as 3D data points, not 2D images in which marker positions must be calculated using black-box image processing algorithms. These proprietary algorithms typically rely on templating, oversampling and averaging the marker positions, thereby introducing measurement error and unwelcome biases.
Instead, the Optotrak tracks each movement without noise, independent of the sampling rate, allowing the measured signal to be reconstructed as accurately as possible. This is most valuable when reconstructing a continuous position trajectory from discrete data points for deriving acceleration and velocity profiles, and conducting inverse dynamics analysis.
The Optotrak integrates easily with analog devices such as force plates and EMG sensors, providing tight signal synchronization. In studies involving inverse dynamic analysis, any small misalignment between forces and kinematic data can lead to large errors in joint torque. By using the Optotrak Data Acquisition Unit (ODAU), temporal synchronization remains accurate, even during long data collection.