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Abstract:
Motion-capture-based biomechanical simulation is a non-invasive analysis
method that yields a rich description of posture, joint, and muscle
activity in human movement. The method is presently gaining ground
in sports, medicine, and industrial ergonomics, but it also bears
great potential for studies in HCI where the physical ergonomics
of a design is important. To make the method more broadly accessible,
we study its predictive validity for movements and users typical
to studies in HCI. We discuss the sources of error in biomechanical
simulation and present results from two validation studies conducted
with a state-of-the-art system. Study I tested aimed movements ranging
from multitouch gestures to dancing, finding out that the critical
limiting factor is the size of movement. Study II compared muscle
activation predictions to surface-EMG recordings in a 3D pointing
task. The data shows medium-to-high validity that is, however, constrained
by some characteristics of the movement and the user. We draw concrete
recommendations to practitioners and discuss challenges to developing
the method further.
