Development of Interface for Visualizing the Center of Gravity of Caregiver's Body Segment

Abstract

Today, the population is aging not only in Japan but also on a global scale. Along with this, the number of people who need long- term care is increasing. Nurses need skills as caregivers, and in the future, the time will come when many people not limited to nurses will also need those skills. In the current textbooks for nurses, the movements that should be conscious of in nursing care movements are indicated by arrows. However, these arrows are drawn by the intuition and experience of the textbook author and are not based on kinematic data. In this study, we develop an interface for visualizing kinematic data focusing on caregiver’s movement. For this purpose, we develop a system calculating centers of gravity of three body segments, trunk, right foot and left foot. Three-dimensional coordinates and trajectories of centers of gravity are shown on front, side and top view planes. The interface makes the movement of a skilled caregiver visually easy to understand.