Journal of the Society of Biomechanisms
Print ISSN : 0285-0885
Volume 32, Issue 4
Displaying 1-11 of 11 articles from this issue
  • Naritoshi SATO, Toyohiko HAYASHI, Yasuo NAKAMURA
    2008 Volume 32 Issue 4 Pages 221-228
    Published: 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Rehabilitation clinics strongly require easy and quantitative methods for evaluating patient's motion function. To answer such requirement, we developed a two-dimensional inverse dynamic analysis-based system, consisting of a CCD camera and a force sensor, for evaluating motor functions of upper extremity in hemiplegic patients. As a motor task, we asked patients to rotate a hinge lever with a constant torque, because most patients were able to carry out this simple task reproducibly. Subjects were 10 patients with slight spastic hemiplegia (the hemiplegic) and 10 normal people (the normal), and their range of motion (ROM), joint moment, and cooperative motion of neighboring joints were evaluated. Empirical results showed that both group had nearly the same joint trajectory, although the normal tended to use wrist joint more widely than the hemiplegic. Joint moment of the normal tended to be dominant in shoulder and elbow joints, while that of the hemiplegic was able to be classified into two patterns, dominance in shoulder and elbow joints like the normal and no significant contribution in these joints. In the normal group, joint moment of the elbow increased significantly in the initial phase of the task, followed by that of the shoulder. In the hemiplegic group, on the other hand, joint moment of the shoulder started to increase significantly at 20 degrees of the lever angle. All these results reflects the fact that the patients with hemiplegia were not able to selectively move all related joint voluntarily because of spastic paralysis. Consequently, the proposed analysis system can be considered to have a potential of clinically evaluating motor functions of upper extremity in slightly hemiplegic patients.
    Download PDF (1912K)
  • Shogo NAKAZONO, Satoshi KOBORI
    2008 Volume 32 Issue 4 Pages 229-238
    Published: 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    We performed the experiment of button-press task for 20 healthy subjects (10 males and 10 females), and analyzed the learning processes. The button-press task means the subject observes a moving target and presses a button to stop it when the target enters a specified area on a computer display. Here, we measured button-press performance in two separate groups of subjects, and used suppressed task or delayed task as our learning task, in order to investigate the function of information acquisition and prediction. In the suppressed task, the moving target disappears at some point during the trial. In the delayed task, there is some lag time between the press of button and the stop of target. In these tasks, subjects estimate the movement of the target, and press the button considering his or her own reaction time. In the experiment, we measured not only the error data but also the eye movement data, and examined the relation between the eye movement patterns and the learning processes. The results suggest that the learning effects in these tasks are strongly associated with the changes in the way of the eye movement.
    Download PDF (2461K)
  • Soichiro SUZUKI, Masayasu HACHIYA
    2008 Volume 32 Issue 4 Pages 239-246
    Published: 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In the analytical study on a biped passive walking robot, the simplified model has an almost round shape sole for the two-dimensional motion on the sagittal plane. However, a stabilization theory for biped passive walking has not been established. In addition, three-dimensional motion appears in an actual human gait. This paper examined the stabilization method of a biped passive walking robot with a three-dimensional weight shift. The experimental model was designed by using the results of human gait analysis. As a result, it was demonstrated that the biped passive walking robot could be stabilized on various slope angles.
    Download PDF (2596K)
feedback
Top