3D Vertebrae Measurements: Assessing Vertebral Dimensions in Human Spine Mesh Models Using Local Anatomical Vertebral Axes

Vertebral morphological measurements are important across various disciplines, including spinal biomechanics and clinical applications, pre- and post-operatively. These measurements also play a crucial role in anthropological longitudinal studies, where spinal metrics are repeatedly documented over extended periods. Traditionally, such measurements have been manually conducted, a process that is time-consuming. In this study, we introduce a novel, fully automated method for measuring vertebral morphology using 3D meshes of lumbar and thoracic spine models.Our experimental results demonstrate the method's capability to accurately measure low-resolution patient-specific vertebral meshes with mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.09 mm and those derived from artificially created lumbar spines, where the average MAE value was 0.7 mm. Our qualitative analysis indicates that measurements obtained using our method on 3D spine models can be accurately reprojected back onto the original medical images if these images are available.

HealthWalk: Promoting Health and Mobility through Sensor-Based Rollator Walker Assistance

Rollator walkers allow people with physical limitations to increase their mobility and give them the confidence and independence to participate in society for longer. However, rollator walker users often have poor posture, leading to further health problems and, in the worst case, falls. Integrating sensors into rollator walker designs can help to address this problem and results in a platform that allows several other interesting use cases. This paper briefly overviews existing systems and the current research directions and challenges in this field. We also present our early HealthWalk rollator walker prototype for data collection with older people, rheumatism, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson patients, and individuals with visual impairments.