Date of Award

Spring 1990

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biomedical Engineering

First Advisor

Pintar, Frank A.

Abstract

The cervical spine constitutes an important region of the human body that is vulnerable to injury in motor vehicle accidents and various types of sports. Current knowledge of the mechanism of injury and tolerance of the human cervical spine is limited. Therefore, a quantitative assessment of the functional changes associated with the application of external mechanical forces (as seen in automobile and motorcycle trauma) is needed. This study is directed to investigate and validate a cine-photogrammetric system for measuring human spine motion in three-dimensions. The validation of the system is performed by using two different calibration structure containing control points with known three-dimensional coordinates. The accuracy of the system is evaluated by using different number of control points to determine the calibration coefficients of each camera, and by varying the angle between the optical axis of the cameras. The cervical spine of fresh human adult cadavers is subjected to compression forces in a specially designed apparatus. The resulting motion of each cervical vertebrae of the subject under investigation is monitored using a specially designed three-dimensional video system which will be discussed in details in the following chapter. It is hoped that the determination of these motions will contribute to the design of safe and effective impact protection systems for use in all forms of vehicles and in improving the design of better helmets for motorcyclists and football players. Perhaps the results of this study will also contribute in the development of improved anthropomorphic dummies for use in testing at potentially high injurious levels of impact.

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