ELECTROGONIOMETER

Prajakt Badgujar1, Gaurav Molankar2

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, University of Mumbai
Vidyalankar College Marg, Wadala(E), Mumbai – 400 037, India.
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]

Abstract—In this paper we present an overview on how  Patients with severe joint dislocation will find the
electrogoniometer measures the angle of elbow joint. A conventional procedure very painful.
goniometer is a device used to measure the joint’s range  Measuring the angle while holding the protractor
of motion. The electrogoniometer in our project uses a in position throughout the measurement is a
slightly different technology for measuring the angle of
difficult task for the examiner.
elbow joint. The electrogoniometer is based upon the
working principle of light dependent resistor (LDR)  Also holding the arm/ limb in one position for the
where a light emitting diode (LED) is used as the light entire time of procedure is a problem for the
source and in between the LDR & LED runs a grayscale patient too.
sheet that acts as a light attenuator and varies the The electrogoniometer discussed in this paper has
intensity of light falling on the LDR. Thus the output of been designed in such a way that it overcomes all the
the LDR varies as the LED-LDR arrangement disadvantages of the protractor goniometer. The
(transducer probe) moves across the grayscale sheet. The entire project design and its working is explained in
normal range of motion of the elbow joint is 140⁰. The two halves, hardware system and the software system
analog output of the LDR is digitized and given to the
microcontroller which then converts it into degrees
using a look up table and displays it on the LCD screen. II. HARDWARE SYSTEM
The hardware system of the electrogoniometer
Keywords—Grayscale, range of motion, goniometer, consists of the mechanical part and the electronic
stationary and movable arm, fulcrum, goniometry,
part. The mechanical part comprises of the transducer
kinanthropometry
probe, the stationary and movable arm, the grayscale
I. INTRODUCTION sheet and the protractor. The electronic part consists
of the microcontroller circuit board, the analog to
The range of motion of a joint is a description
digital converter, the LCD display, the power supply
of how much movement exists at the joint. It is
board and their interfacing with each other.
measured in degrees using a goniometer. The range
of motion of the elbow joint is 140⁰ when the elbow
is fully flexed. The most common goniometer used Grayscale sheet
these days is a protractor goniometer which has two
arms riveted on a circular protractor. As the patient
Protractor
flexes his elbow, the movable arm is moved by the Transducer
Probe
physician with the forearm of the patient while the
stationary arm is hold still. This procedure and the
conventional protractor goniometer have the
following disadvantages:
 The mechanical goniometer which is a bulky Stationary Screw Fulcrum Pointer Movable
apparatus. arm arm
Fig1. Mechanical part of Electrogoniometer
 It does not provide much accuracy.
A. The Mechanical part:
 1) Design of the Transducer probe: The multiplexer and microprocessor compatible
transducer probe plays the most significant control logic. The 8-bit A/D converter uses
role in the measurement of the joint angle as it successive approximation as the conversion
contains the light dependent resistor (detector)
technique.
and the light emitting diode (source). The
enclosure is an aluminum covering which is
folded in a narrow manner in order to avoid 3) The Microcontroller (P89C51): The P89C51
the effect of the surrounding light on the is a low power, high performance, CMOS 8
LDR. There is a gap between the LDR and the bit microcomputer with 64Kbyte code
memory and 1Kbyte data memory. The
LED through which the grayscale sheet (light microcontroller controls the operation of the
attenuator) runs. The transducer probe is
ADC and the LCD display. It converts the
attached to the acrylic sheet i.e. the movable
arm of the electrogoniometer. This moves the digitized ADC values into degrees.
transducer probe as the patient flexes his arm.
The stationary arm and the movable arm are 4) LCD: Liquid crystal display displays the
attached to the biceps and the forearm of the measured angle. LCD that we generally use is
patient respectively with the help of the of 16 x 2 characters, i.e. it has 2 rows and 16
Velcro bands. columns.

2) The Grayscale sheet: The semicircular III. THE SOFTWARE SYSTEM

grayscale sheet is nothing but a plastic sheet **********XXXX*********
having different shades of gray. The right end IV. CONCLUSION
is completely dark and as we move to the left
The idea of creating a goniometer with a different
it gradually fades giving us various shades of
gray. This linear gradient nature of the technology giving accurate readings and overcoming
grayscale helps us to vary the amount of light all drawbacks of the protractor goniometer is
falling on the LDR. Thus the grayscale sheet implemented. It serves main purpose of goniometer
which lies between the LED and the LDR acts i.e. to measure range of motion of joint. It is helpful
a perfect light attenuator giving us a in determining if a patient is lacking in mobility due
decreasing voltage output of the LDR. to an injury or how well he is recovering after
B. The Electronic part: sustaining an injury. The use of more transparent but
1) Power Supply: This unit supplies 5V DC clear and reusable material for grey scale (which
voltage to various PCB`s and consists of plays most significant role in our project) in future
rectifier, filter and voltage regulator may help getting the required accuracy. The design of
the transducer movement and the grayscale sheet was
2) Analog to digital converter (ADC 0808): The done with respect to only the elbow joint. With some
output of the LDR from the mechanical part is slight changing in this mechanical part we can use it
given to the ADC 0808 (pin 26). The to measure the angle of various other joints.
ADC0808 data acquisition component is a
monolithic CMOS device with an 8-bit
Analog-to-digital converter, 8-channel
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT [8]. ADC0808/ADC0809,8-Bit μP Compatible
We owe a great many thanks to great many people A/D Converters with 8-ChannelMultiplexer
who helped and supported us in this project. We are Data Sheet
particularly grateful to Dr. Sanjeev Muskawad, our [9]. ADC0808/ADC0809,8-Bit μP Compatible
project guide, for his kind guidance and constant A/D Converters with 8-ChannelMultiplexer
support throughout the project. Our deepest thanks Data Sheet
and appreciation to the employees of Medirays [10]. L7800 Series Voltage regulators Data sheet
Corporation, Asangoan for lending a helping hand in [11]. The Extended Concise LCD Data Sheet
the development of the project’s hardware. We
[12]. www.datasheetcatalogue.com
express our deep sense of gratitude to Professor
Geetha Narayanan for her kind guidance. We would
also thank the entire faculty of Biomedical
department without whom this project would have
been a distant reality.We also extend our heartfelt
thanks to our families and well wishers

REFERENCES
[1]. Roger Eston & Thomas Reilly:
“Kinanthropometry And Exercise
Physiology Laboratory Manual” pp. Ch.4,
Pg:79 – 85
[2]. Nancy Berryman Reese, PhD, PT &William
D. Bandy, PhD, PT,SCS,ATC: “Joint
Range of Motion and Muscle Length
Testing”
[3]. Centre for Nanoscale science and
Technology: “Goniometer_Manual” pp
[4]. http://academic.scranton.edu/faculty/KOSM
AHLE1/courses/PT350/goniomet/gonue.ht
m: “Introduction to goniometry”
[5]. Roger Eston, Thomas Reilly:
Kinanthropometry and Exercise Physiology
Laboratory Manual Test, Procedures and
Data, Volume 1.Ch.5, Pg:129 - 156
[6]. Clemente CD: Gray's Anatomy of the
Human Body. Philadelphia, Lea & Febiger,
1985.
[7]. Keil “Getting Started Creating applications
with μVersion”,Keil An ARM Company.