Reliability assessment of markerless technologies in biomechanical motion analysis: a performance comparison

Abstract

Introduction Body tracking systems are utilized in various areas such as health and sports. In these areas, it is crucial to identify the most accurate and appropriate system for the intended design of the study.Methods This study evaluates the reliability of markerless motion capture systems compared to a marker-based system (OptiTrack) as the gold standard. The systems assessed include StereoLabs ZED 2i, MediaPipe (2D and 3D), and YOLOv8 Pose (8n and 8x-p6). Simple upper and lower limb movements were analyzed under controlled conditions in a single participant. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) values and Bland-Altman analysis were mainly used to evaluate agreement between systems, with some other techniques explored to provide additional perspective.Results The results indicate that StereoLabs ZED 2i achieved the highest reliability among markerless systems (ICC: 0.92 for multi camera, 0.88 for single stereo camera), while MediaPipe 2D showed competitive performance (ICC: 0.85).Discussion In providing comprehensive evaluations and uncovering performance differences that have been largely overlooked in the literature, our work not only questions existing paradigms but also lays a foundation for future research aimed at developing precise and scalable motion-tracking technologies. These findings contribute to understanding the applicability of markerless technologies in biomechanics.