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In diagnosis and treatment of knee joint diseases, it is effective to study the three-dimensional (3D) motion of the patient's knee joint involving the femur, tibia, and patella. A 2D/3D registration method with use of fluoroscopy and CT images is promising for this purpose. However, there is no report showing whether the dynamic 3D motion of the patella can be obtained. In this study, we tried to examine dynamic 3D motion of the knee joint which included the patella. First, in order to investigate the accuracy of the position estimation, we conducted an experiment on a pig knee joint which had several fiducial markers placed on it, and we found that errors in the estimation of rotation and translation were less than 1 mm and 1 deg. We then carried out an image-acquisition experiment with healthy knee joints of three volunteers and confirmed that 3D motions of the femur, tibia, and patella were successfully obtained for all cases.

The purpose of this study is to develop a sheet-like curved type pneumatic rubber muscle and the power assist wear to assist an activity of daily living of aged or disabled person. In view of using the power assist wear in daily life, it is required to have compact, light-weight and flexibility. The developed sheet-liked curved type pneumatic rubber muscle is made of rubber band, and it has a high affinity for human skin. In this paper, the characteristics and the effectiveness of the sheet-liked curved type pneumatic rubber muscle and the developed power assist wear are described.