A New Approach to the Position of Acupoints on the Back of Humans

Abstract

Aim: In order to realize the position of acupoints on the back of humans, a new acupoints positioning approach combined with machine vision technology is proposed in this paper. Background: The acupuncture point (acupoint) is an important reference in the treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). However, the traditional acupoints positioning method mainly depends on manpower, which has the disadvantages of low efficiency and relying on practical experience heavily. Objective: In order to realize the position of acupoints on the back of humans, a new acupoints positioning approach combined with machine vision technology is proposed in this paper. Methods: Firstly, the distribution of acupoints on the back of humans are determined according to the meridian theory, and the coordinate of each acupoint are established based on the approach of fingercun measurement, after review of previous literature and patents. Secondly, the principle of the proposed acupoints positioning method is introduced based on the skeleton model of humans. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated by experimental testing. Results: The value of emax is around 3.5mm and those of emae and erms are smaller than 0.25mm and 0.45mm, respectively. Conclusion: The experimental results prove that the proposed approach possesses the capability of good adaptive capability and high.