MRI-compatible Motion Analysis System

[Philipp Ruß]

Re: MRI-compatible Motion Analysis System

Hi Erin,

we did two of these installation with using fMRI compatible high speed cameras and our Simi Motion software. It works very well and you can analyse all the grasping, finger movements, etc...
I will have our US person get in contact with you and i will send you some pictures i have for one of these installations. I think the price was far less then $70K but the US person can tell you exactly.
Philipp

[Tim Wrigley]

Re: MRI-compatible Motion Analysis System

The other potentially useful thing about the Metria gear is that it is supposedly accurate enough to track any head motion and correct fMRI images for that motion.
But anything built specifically to be MRI-safe is probably going to be expensive. It may be worth investigating if you can measure what you want using conventional cameras (mocap or otherwise) that view the MRI room from outside.
Or if you can get by with just knowing that a limb is moving or muscles contracting at the time your fMRI sequence is taken - rather than direct kinematic measures - then you can build simple systems based on pressure measurement for example to detect force application. We have done that with rubber, plastic, wood, webbing, and aluminium, for measuring force during isometric knee extension, ankle plantar flexion, and elbow flexion for fMRI.

Tim Wrigley
University of Melbourne

[Brian Schulz]

Re: MRI-compatible Motion Analysis System

You might want to look at this system: http://www.metriainnovation.com
MRI compatible, single camera but still 3D, very good rotational accuracy, and far less than $70K if I remember correctly.

[Erin Butler]

Does anyone have experience building an MRI-compatible motion analysis system? The commercially available systems tend to cost upwards of $70,000, which is beyond my budget. I'm looking to measure upper limb kinematics of fine motor tasks during fMRI acquisition. Active (LEDs?) or passive markers plus HD cameras or data glove? What works, what doesn't? Tips/guidelines? Cost estimates? Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you,
Erin Butler, PhD

Neukom Postdoctoral Fellow
Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
erin.e.butler@dartmouth.edu