It has been shown that the majority of hip and knee prostheses available on the market today are those that have been designed to satisfy the needs of Western cultures. By this it is meant that current prostheses allow individuals to return to activities of daily living that are commonly found in Western cultures, such as sitting on a chair. In non-Western cultures however, a great majority of the activities of daily living are performed on or close to the floor. Positions such as squatting, kneeling, and sitting cross-legged are essential to maintaining a traditional lifestyle. Recent analysis of these positions has shown that they require a maximum of 165° to full flexion at the knee and a maximum of 158° to full flexion at the hip. It is obvious from these values that the needs of non-Western cultures will differ substantially from those of Western cultures.

In recognition of this cultural difference recent research has been conducted to identify and characterize activities of daily living in non-Western cultures. The present thesis is concerned with the development of a method for collecting kinematic and kinetic information on the lower limb during the performance of selected activities of daily living. Specifically, the required equipment, data acquisition programming, and three-dimensional model are presented. It is anticipated that the information obtained with this method will be used to help direct the re-design of prostheses specific to non-Western cultures.