A Reliable and Inexpensive Integration of Virtual Reality and Digital Human Modelling to Estimate Cervical Spine Function

Musculoskeletal disorders present one of the most prominent impact among the work-related diseases. Cervical spine is indeed one of the anatomical regions most affected by these issues; the main impairments concerning the cervical segment inherently limit its ranges of motion (ROMs). In the last years, novel technologies have been developed to support clinicians in assessing and quantifying these limitations, including wearable sensors and Virtual Reality (VR). In this perspective, interest in Digital Human Modeling has been also increasing due to the possibility of using it together with wearable technologies, thus to obtain enhanced information on body dynamics. This study aimed to validate a novel approach, which integrated VR technology and multi-body modelling to reliably estimated the ROMs of the cervical spine during the execution of three specific tasks (i.e. flexion-extension, lateral bending, axial rotation). Comparison with standard optoelectronic system reported strong correlation and good reliability, with an average difference in estimating ROMs of 8.0° and a mean RMSE of 4.7°. Furthermore, a preliminary test in managing different visual cues through VR highlighted interesting trends for future developments. The performed analysis supported the use of the proposed solution for both the clinical settings and telemedicine applications.