Dynamics of Vertebral Column Observed by Stereovision and Recurrent Neural Network Model

A new non-invasive method for investigation of movement of selected points on the vertebral column is presented. The registration of position of points marked on patient's body is performed by 4 infrared cameras. This experiment enables to reconstruct 3-dimensional trajectories of displacement of marked points. We introduce recurrent neural networks as formal nonlinear dynamical models of each point trajectory. These models are based only on experimental data and are set up of minimal number of parameters. Therefore they are suitable for pattern recognition problems.