Cycle
Definition Event
MKR File
The Cycle Detection algorithm in the PlugIn can be directed to base its cycle detection according to a particular event. By defining an event, the algorithm will search for the event and use this as the Start and End event for different cycles.
Type the Event name in the text box, or select the Event from the drop-down list.
You can choose the event to start from any one of the contexts, or you can specify that the analysis should start from the first cycle which is detected in Any of the contexts.
If you choose to always start the analysis on the Left side, for example, you can be sure that the corresponding cycle (i.e. the results) for the right side will have occured at a later (but overlapping) time. Choosing Any context means that the corresponding cycle results from different contexts may precede or follow the others, depending on the context in which the first cycle occurs in the trial.
The Any option may find a larger number of cycles in some trials, wheras starting in a specific context may loose the first cycle of other cotexts if they start earlier.
Incomplete cycles can occur when trials do not begin or end specifically with the cycle event you've defined (e.g. Foot Strike for gait cycles).
If you want to include any incomplete cycles at the begining or end of the trial, tick the appropriate check boxes. Cycle numbering will then begin before the first complete cycle.
The Initial Context is still obeyed with the option to include the incomplete cycle at the begining of the trial. In some cases, a complete cycle in a different context may be treated as incomplete, if it starts before the first complete cycle in the specified initial context. In the non-specified context, the analysis will start at the begining of the earlier complete cycle, if it exists.
If you leave the Event field blank, or specify an event name which doesn't exist in the trial, the PlugIn will operate the cycle detection algorithm in fully automatic mode.
Depending on the individual events, and the type of analysis being performed, the Analyzer PlugIn will define a series of cycles within the trial, which span the different contexts. In general, cycles in the different contexts will not be coincident, but the PlugIn detects overlapping cycles in different contexts, and is able to assign them to the same cycle number.
If using specific cycles is unimportant to your analysis, or you have a fairly simple analysis scheme, the automatic detection option is likely to give you the greatest number of cycles of results from your trial
For those analyzers which take measurements from a trajectory, you can specify your most commonly used MKR file in the Trajectory Labels text box (use the MKR File button to browse for the file). This will cause the list of suggested labels which drop down in the analyzer settings pages to adopt the labels in the given MKR file. The default setting is to use the Vicon PlugInGait.mkr file.