{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T16:57:37Z","timestamp":1785430657411,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783987200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"BMW Group"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/044kkbh92","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100016378","name":"TU Dortmund University","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100016378","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01k97gp34","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Contactless automotive tailgate activation relies on recognizing intentional lower-limb gestures near the rear bumper, yet these systems are developed and evaluated from sensor-specific recordings rather than from the underlying human movement, so quantitative, sensor-independent kinematic reference profiles for these gestures are lacking. This study establishes wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU)-derived reference profiles of two tailgate-activation gestures: a forward kick and a lateral wipe. Lower-body motion was recorded in 56 adult participants using a seven-sensor Xsens Awinda configuration under application-oriented conditions, yielding 6879 segmented movements. To the best of our knowledge, this is among the most extensive of such datasets, providing a sensor-independent, joint- and segment-level movement reference. Both gestures shared a common sagittal structure dominated by knee, ankle, and hip flexion\/extension, with mean knee flexion\/extension of 45.9\u2218 for kick and 42.3\u2218 for wipe movements. Wipe gestures differed through markedly larger non-sagittal components, with hip abduction\/adduction of 17.2\u2218 versus 7.7\u2218 and ankle internal\/external rotation of 16.6\u2218 versus 8.7\u2218, confirmed in every participant (p&lt;0.001). Foot-segment kinematics showed the highest velocities, with a mean resultant foot velocity of approximately 1.8m\/s. These profiles provide a quantitative biomechanical basis for benchmarking gesture-recognition sensor systems, informing detection-window and threshold selection, and enabling standardized, repeatable testing of contactless automotive HMI systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26144469","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T01:05:58Z","timestamp":1784077558000},"page":"4469","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Wearable IMU-Derived Kinematic Reference Profiles of Lower-Limb Kick and Wipe Gestures for Contactless Automotive Tailgate Activation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-1033-8219","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"J\u00e1nos","family":"Dreveton","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Control Theory and Systems Engineering (RST), TU Dortmund University, Otto-Hahn-Str. 8, 44227 Dortmund, Germany"},{"name":"BMW Group, Petuelring 130, 80809 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-2568-2773","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Moritz","family":"Labetzsch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"BMW Group, Petuelring 130, 80809 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tim","family":"Gocke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"BMW Group, Petuelring 130, 80809 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6096-8190","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Torsten","family":"Bertram","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Control Theory and Systems Engineering (RST), TU Dortmund University, Otto-Hahn-Str. 8, 44227 Dortmund, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7821","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2016.2609392","article-title":"Wearable Inertial Sensors for Human Motion Analysis: A Review","volume":"16","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. 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