Early Motor Pattern Analysis Using a Single RGB-D Camera: A Case Study of Twins at Divergent Risk for Motor Impairment

Early identification of motor impairment in infants at developmental risk can benefit from objective assessment methods. In this feasibility study, we evaluated quantitative kinematic metrics extracted from home-based recordings as indicators of developmental differences between twins with divergent perinatal outcomes. Two 4-month-old twins, one typically developing and one at-risk of motor impairment, were recorded using a single RGB-D camera at home. Videos of up to three minutes per twin were captured at seven timepoints, about 30 days apart. Seven upper body points of interest were tracked using DeepLabCut and their 3D coordinates calculated with an improved version of a previously published method adapted for home use. Thirteen metrics were estimated at each timepoint. Most metrics were consistent with the trends reported in the literature, distinguishing divergent perinatal outcomes. These findings demonstrated that the proposed method is usable for home-based data collection, compensating for motion artifacts and reducing manual labeling time.