title: On the analysis of movement smoothness.
abstract: Quantitative measures of smoothness play an important role in the assessment of sensorimotor impairment and motor learning. Traditionally, movement smoothness has been computed mainly for discrete movements, in particular arm, reaching and circle drawing, using kinematic data. There are currently very few studies investigating smoothness of rhythmic movements, and there is no systematic way of analysing the smoothness of such movements. There is also very little work on the smoothness of other movement related variables such as force, impedance etc. In this context, this paper presents the first step towards a unified framework for the analysis of smoothness of arbitrary movements and using various data. It starts with a systematic definition of movement smoothness and the different factors that influence smoothness, followed by a review of existing methods for quantifying the smoothness of discrete movements. A method is then introduced to analyse the smoothness of rhythmic movements by generalising the techniques developed for discrete movements. We finally propose recommendations for analysing smoothness of any general sensorimotor behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Christian Medical College, Bagayam, Vellore, 632002, Tamil Nadu, India. siva82kb@cmcvellore.ac.in.
authors.forename: Sivakumar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balasubramanian
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, Chicago, 60611, IL, USA.|Hocoma AG, Volketswil, 8604, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Melendez-Calderon
authors.affiliation: ISIR, UPMC, CNRS UMR 7222, Agathe team INSERM U1150, Paris, 75005, France.
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roby-Brami
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, South Kensington campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Burdet
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*