Spatial Analysis: Cyclography and Kimocyclography
To evaluate work movements in detail, it is necessary to record them in space and time. Cyclography and kimocyclography are used specifically for this purpose.
The main objective of these methods is the precise study of mechanical parameters regarding the displacement of the human body or its individual parts.
How this is implemented in practice:
- Operating principle: the movement process is continuously recorded using filming or serial photography. The primary condition is that the recording of successive time moments must occur at strictly equal intervals.
- Object equipment: to allow the camera to capture the required points, special markers are attached to the subject's body. They are not positioned randomly, but strictly over joints or at points corresponding to the centers of gravity of individual body segments.
- Result: based on the obtained frames, a cyclogram is constructed — a visual curve (trajectory) reflecting the path of limb or torso displacement.
In modern normal physiology and biomechanics, manual calculation of trajectories has been minimized. The processing of all obtained data is carried out automatically using specialized computer technologies.
Functional Analysis of Muscle Activity
In addition to understanding how a hand or leg moves in space, it is important for the researcher to know what efforts the muscular apparatus develops during this process. Two key approaches are used for a comprehensive assessment of muscle activity during labor:
- Mechanography — a method that produces a mechanogram. It aims to record exclusively the mechanical activity of muscles (contraction, tension, relaxation).
- Electromyography — a method that yields an electromyogram. In this case, the electrical activity of muscle fibers is recorded, meaning the biopotentials that precede and accompany mechanical contraction.