Gesture Analysis for Yoga Alignment (GAYA)
Paula R. Pullen Ph.D. , Nataly Gonzalez B.S. and William S. Seffens Ph.D
(1) Department of Health & Physical Education, University of North Georgia, Oakwood, GA.,
Abstract
Introduction
Yoga Therapy research has recently become the focus
of rigorous scientific inquiry in the interest of under-
standing and quantifying its benefits for a wide variety
of medical conditions. There remains a disparity
between segments of the population who can readily
access yoga classes and therapies. For difficult to
reach individuals, yoga in an exergame format could be
utilized in clinical or home environments. The purpose
of this study was to analyze yoga posture alignment
using a gesture analysis program in order to produce a
yoga exergame using the Microsoft Kinect sensor. We
captured five yoga postures demonstrated by an
advanced yoga teacher, as a gold standard for
comparison purposes.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to utilize existing
gesture analysis software to provide skill improvement
feedback to students in a college Yoga course setting.
AIM 1: To measure yoga posture alignment over the
course of a 10-week period to provide objective feed-
back toward the goal of improved posture alignment.
AIM 2: To provide framework for Yoga posture align-
ment using a gesture analysis program from Microsoft
Kinect in order to produce a yoga exergame for pre-
ventative and rehabilitative therapies.
1 1
(2) Physiology Department, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA.
Methods
Five yoga postures were selected from an earlier Yoga
cardiac study (Pullen et al., 2010). These postures
were shown to be captured readily by Kinect version
1(Pullen & Seffens, 2014) and version 2 (Pullen et al.,
2015). Utilized Microsoft Visual Studio SDK to capture
session clips (Figure 1). Visual Gesture Builder (VGB)
used to analyze Yoga postures. The research was
approved by the UNG IRB (201584).
Figure (1): Exergame Skeletal Image
Results
Three 3D video clips of the five yoga postures were
captured from the yoga teacher as the gold standard.
for VGB training and validation.
Our prior research has shown that the Kinect skeleton
algorithms become confused with yoga postures that
change the usual orientation of the head. Assuming that
the data is interval data we calculated the regression.
Study Demographics
2
Convenience sample of undergraduate students was
recorded executing same five postures before and after the
first yoga class, at the mid-point and at the conclusion of
twice weekly, 10-week yoga course. Yoga experience level
was assessed utilizing a Likert Scale from 1-10 (10 being
expert instructor level).
We assessed capturability of 5 yoga poses by measuring
the average number of frames required for initiation of Kinect
tracking. Mountain pose required an average of 33 frames for
tracking (about 2 seconds), while the other poses took
considerably (>5X) longer. The rank was Mountain, Upward
salute, Tree pose, Side bend, then Forward bend. As a result,
we focused on Mountain pose for this preliminary report.
Analysis of first to last session VGB scores in Figure 2 shows
some improvement over the 10 week course. The inserted
black line would be no difference, points above are subjects
with measured improvement for mountain pose.
Figure (2): Statistical Analysis: Linear Regression
Discussion
Based on Figure 2 there is a slight measured increase in
mountain pose accuracy over the 10 week training period.
Also greater self-rated yoga experience level was related to
higher gesture score with a p-value of 0.09. Because of the
limited sample size it is difficult to conclude the accuracy of
VGB in determining the statistical durability of the study
participants experience with yoga. However, because of
the inherent differences in participants ability to perform
yoga at a beginning skill level, the study should yield
useful measurements of the skill growth as students learn
yoga.
Our future plans are to increase the sample size, and
assess body mass and age effects on posture alignment.
We plan to develop a standardize assessment of yoga
skills that will be compared to the VGB scores.
Conclusion
Gesture analysis for yoga alignment may be useful for
development of home and clinical yoga therapy for hard
to reach populations. The Kinect sensor provides a tool
that could score the performance of yoga therapy and
provide quantitate measures of posture adherence and
improvement.
References
Field, T., (2011), Yoga clinical research review, Complementary
Therapies in Clinical Practice, vol. 17:1-8.
Pullen P., Ogbesor, A., William Seffens, (2015), Kinect Acquisition of
Skeleton Body Positions During Yoga and Tai Chi for Exergame
Development, Am Coll. Sports Medicine Annual Meeting poster May
2015 poster 34.
P Pullen and W Seffens, (2014), Exergame development study of Kinect
for yoga postures, Symposium on Yoga Research, by Int. Assoc. Yoga
Therapists, held at Kripalu Institute, Stockbridge, MA. on 24-26 Sept.
2014. Poster 18.
Pullen PR, Thompson WR, Benardot D, Brandon LJ, Mehta PK, Rafai L,
Vandais DSKhan BV (2010), Benefits of yoga for African
American heart failure patients. Med Sci Sports Exerc. Apr;42(4):651-7.
doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181bf24c4.
2013 Microsoft, (2014), Visual Gesture Builder: A Data-Driven Solution to
Gesture Detection, Windows v2 SDK, 1-17.
Acknowledgements/Disclosures
We acknowledge partial support to WS from
8G12MD007602, 8U54MD007588 grants to MSM from
NIH/NIMHD, and from the University of North Georgia to PRP.