The effect of light reflections from the snow on kinematic data collected using stereo-photogrammetry with passive markers

This study aimed to compare kinematic data collected during ski-cross starts outdoors on snow in daylight (high albedo) to similar data collected indoors with infiltrating sunlight but without light reflections from the snow (low albedo) using a video-based motion capture system with the active filtering function enabled. A 12-camera 3D motion capture system (Qualisys AB, Sweden) was used to measure test objects and eight skiers performing a ski-cross start on a slope outdoors and on a wooden start ramp indoors. The average residuals and standard deviations of the length of the calibration wand calculated indoors and outdoors by the calibration software were compared using descriptive statistics. Static and moving fixed length measures and thigh length measures were compared using Bland–Altman plots. Calibration residuals were slightly increased outdoors (1.77 mm) compared to indoors (1.54 mm), while wand length varied by 3.63 and 1.51 mm, respectively. Fixed static lengths differed by −8.65 ± 4.94 mm (shorter indoors), whereas fixed moving lengths differed by 0.85 ± 1.05 mm (longer indoors). A randomly chosen marker pair on one segment (Thigh) showed a mean difference of 1.19 ± 22.05 mm (longer indoors). It is concluded that 3D motion capture outdoors on snow in daylight is feasible, provides kinematic data comparable to indoors, and could be used to research biomechanics in snow sports.