Automated plantar pressure masking: evaluation of mask orientation to optical motion capture

Automated plantar pressure (PP) masking can improve reporting time, remove human error/bias, and standardize masking methods when used for PP-based gait analysis. Twenty participants walked while optical motion capture cameras tracked 3-dimensional locations of the markers and a PP mat simultaneously recorded steps. Five automated PP techniques to identify mask orientation were compared to motion capture foot orientation. The general image processing and 66% CoP masking techniques had the lowest error when determining PP mask orientation in typical walkers.