Image Analysis Technology of the Human Standing Posture Photos and Cupping Therapy with Light Therapy Applied on Local Muscle Tissue

Habitual poor posture often leads to muscular imbalances. Such postural deficiencies often lead to musculoskeletal symptoms, including muscle stiffness or soreness, and can result in the loss of neutral spinal alignment, muscle group fatigue, and acquired joint deformity. A more worrisome issue is the lack of self-awareness that most people have regarding their unconscious adoption of improper standing postures. Therefore, developing a convenient and fast analysis tool of human standing posture (HSP) should be a topic worthy of research. Furthermore, comparing HSP could serve as a useful reference for evaluating the efficacy of physical therapy, including manual therapy, cupping therapy, and optical therapy modalities. In this study, an image analysis technology of HSP using photographs of specific poses and the cupping therapy with the light therapy applied on local muscle imbalances in the shoulder and neck areas are investigated. We developed a HSP desktop app (HSPA) using MediaPipe to detect body keypoints and calculate the deviation distances of the ears, shoulders, hips and knees, as well as the deviation angles of the ear-shoulder from the lateral plane and the right shoulder-left shoulder from the dorsal plane. A MMD-MSD containing HSP image with keypoints marked by physiotherapists was used as the HSP analysis image source to calculate value of deviation distances and angles. The results show that the results of HSPA calculation based on MediaPipe are close to the reference values calculated based on MMD-MSD keypoints. The HSPA can provide accurate deviation distances and angles and can be applied to evaluate the efficacy of a low-intensity light therapy treatment case. Comparing deviation distances and angles before and after treatment can evaluate treatment effectiveness. It is believed that this technology could assist in proactively adjusting standing posture and objectively quantifying the treatment of muscle imbalances.