Processing, Converting, and Visualizing C3D File: A Free Web-based services

Abstract

The C3D format is a standard and pervasive file format in biomechanics to store and share motion data like the markers' trajectory and analog data like ground reaction force and electromyography data, etc. Also, most of the companies that design and manufacture biomechanical laboratory equipment export data as a C3D file, for instance, motion capture companies like Vicon, Qualisys, etc. Thus, the software to read and manipulate the C3D file could have a crucial effect on facilitating biomechanical research as a tool. Generally, there are two main methods to work with c3d files, First using developed APIs like Biomechanical Toolkit(BTK) and EZc3d, which users need to have basic programming knowledge. Second, there are some desktop applications to process and visualize C3D files like Visual3D, C3Deditor, and Mokka. Although, most of the motion capture systems have their processing software to obtain the kinematic and kinetic of motion. However, researchers according to their purposes, use other software as third-party software like Visual3D, MATLAB, and Opensim to process data and compute kinematics and kinetics of motion. OpenSim as open-source software is highly popular in biomechanical research, but the c3d files must be converted to another file that is compatible with the Opensim. So, our objective was to develop a free web-based service to read, process, and convert C3D files to other formats such as TRC and MOT files that are compatible with Opensim as input files.