title: biomechZoo: An open-source toolbox for the processing, analysis, and visualization of biomechanical movement data.
abstract: It is common for biomechanics data sets to contain numerous dependent variables recorded over time, for many subjects, groups, and/or conditions. These data often require standard sorting, processing, and analysis operations to be performed in order to answer research questions. Visualization of these data is also crucial. This manuscript presents biomechZoo, an open-source toolbox that provides tools and graphical user interfaces to help users achieve these goals. The aims of this manuscript are to (1) introduce the main features of the toolbox, including a virtual three-dimensional environment to animate motion data (Director), a data plotting suite (Ensembler), and functions for the computation of three-dimensional lower-limb joint angles, moments, and power and (2) compare these computations to those of an existing validated system. To these ends, the steps required to process and analyze a sample data set via the toolbox are outlined. The data set comprises three-dimensional marker, ground reaction force (GRF), joint kinematic, and joint kinetic data of subjects performing straight walking and 90° turning manoeuvres. Joint kinematics and kinetics processed within the toolbox were found to be similar to outputs from a commercial system. The biomechZoo toolbox represents the work of several years and multiple contributors to provide a flexible platform to examine time-series data sets typical in the movement sciences. The toolbox has previously been used to process and analyse walking, running, and ice hockey data sets, and can integrate existing routines, such as the KineMat toolbox, for additional analyses. The toolbox can help researchers and clinicians new to programming or biomechanics to process and analyze their data through a customizable workflow, while advanced users are encouraged to contribute additional functionality to the project. Students may benefit from using biomechZoo as a learning and research tool. It is hoped that the toolbox can play a role in advancing research in the movement sciences. The biomechZoo m-files, sample data, and help repositories are available online (http://www.biomechzoo.com) under the Apache 2.0 License. The toolbox is supported for Matlab (r2014b or newer, The Mathworks Inc., Natick, USA) for Windows (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, USA) and Mac OS (Apple Inc., Cupertino, USA).
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, + 1 (617) 495-1000, USA; Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, USA. Electronic address: http://www.biomechzoo.com.
authors.forename: Philippe C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.affiliation: Medicus Corda, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Jonathan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Loh
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education and McGill Research Centre for Physical Activity and Health, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Yannick
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Michaud-Paquette
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education and McGill Research Centre for Physical Activity and Health, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Pearsall
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D012984:Software
keywords: Analysis; Biomechanics; Gait; Kinematics; Kinetics; Processing; Programming; Visualization