# A Computer Vision Lifting Monitor

> **NIH ALLCDC R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2022 · $525,630

## Abstract

Project Summary/ Abstract
Repetitive manual lifting is a significant occupational health and safety concern and is highly prevalent in
warehousing, distribution centers, package delivery, transportation, and lean manufacturing. These types of
tasks are the most challenging to analyze from an ergonomics perspective, particularly in multi-task situations
where lifting varied items occurs in numerous locations, involving variable body postures throughout the workday.
Manually measuring the parameters needed for analysis is challenging and resource intensive for industry
practitioners today. The overarching goal of this research is to create a computer vision risk model for lifting,
incorporate it into a prototype instrument, and field evaluate the instrument in comparison to conventional RNLE
methods. Automated job analysis potentially offers a more objective, accurate, repeatable, and efficient exposure
assessment tool than conventional observational methods. Furthermore, it provides convenient quantification of
additional exposure variables, including lifting kinematics (i.e., speed and acceleration) individual differences,
and postures; is suitable for long-term, direct reading exposure assessment; and offers animated data
visualization synchronized with video for identifying interventions. This research translates already collected
videos of jobs and corresponding health outcomes from a landmark prospective study database for computer
vision lower back pain risk assessment. It leverages the vast database of videos and corresponding exposure
measures and health data for lifting and lowering activities (i.e., subtasks) performed by 772 workers across the
three cohort studies, collected by our study partners at NIOSH, the University of Utah, and the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They are part of a multi-institutional NIOSH funded consortium of U.S. laboratories that
recently studied workers in a wide variety of industries in a prospective epidemiology study on lower back pain.
The consortium videos will be analyzed by extracting the new video feature exposure measures, including lifting
postures, and torso and load kinematics. The video exposure assessment data will be combined with consortium
observational exposure measures and health outcome data. We will test the hypothesis that adding computer
vision exposure variables with consortium exposure variables can enhance performance of predicting lower back
pain. This project will refine and program video exposure assessment algorithms for posture classification, torso
angle and trunk and load kinematics into a prototype device. The new exposure algorithms will be tested in
selected industrial sites and compared against conventional observational methods for consistency and utility
(r2p). This translational research offers an unprecedented opportunity to exploit unique videos and associated
exposure and health outcome data already collected, in combination with new technology for quantifying
exp...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10519367
- **Project number:** 1R01OH012313-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Jay M Kapellusch
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $525,630
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10519367

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10519367, A Computer Vision Lifting Monitor (1R01OH012313-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10519367. Licensed CC0.

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