Development of Input and Evaluation Criteria for a Video-Based Occupational Risk Assessment Tool

Workplace injury prevalence and cost have created an immediate need for ergonomics risk assessment tools that require minimal ergonomics training, rooted in a foundation of experimental research, and provide comprehensive outputs that give some indication of risk and required action. Observation-based tools have been widely implemented in practice due to their simplicity, accessibility, and cost- and time-efficiency, but they typically require specialized training, present inconsistent risk categories, and depend on user interpretation of a specific set of static posture and load parameters. MyAbilities Technologies Inc. has developed a video-based risk assessment tool (PDAi: Physical Demands Artificial Intelligence) that addresses these issues by using a task video recorded on a mobile phone and overlaying a set of digital joint locations to estimate physical demands and injury risk. The effect of video recording angle needs to be evaluated to guide users to record video that can maximize the accuracy of assessments results. Further, despite reaching being a prominent aspect of most occupational tasks, the effects of key task parameters â such as sitting vs. standing and one- vs two-handed reaching â are unknown, and need to be evaluated to provide accurate risk estimates related to reaching tasks for both practitioners and researchers.

Faculty Supervisor:

Peter Keir

Student:

Colin McKinnon

Partner:

MyAbilities

Discipline:

Kinesiology

Sector:

University:

Program:

Elevate