Design and Development of Fun Lean Augmented and Virtual Reality Prototypes for Hand and Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Author(s):  
Chien-Sing Lee ◽  
Pei-Yee Tan ◽  
Hong-Wei Wong

Lack of motivation to carry out rehabilitation exercise from a hand injury or stroke is one of the most challenging aspects faced by Occupational Therapy (OT) and Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants (COTA). Some patients refuse to exercise due to behavioral, psychological, or cognitive reasons. We hypothesize that recovery to their former activity level and strength can be quickened if we develop Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR) games which add fun into rehabilitative hand exercises. A physical card game for hand rehabilitation, which contains puzzle pieces and rehabilitative exercise instructions, is designed and developed to trigger the display of an Augmented Reality virtual reward upon completion of the puzzle. User testing results are promising. Users find it easy to use, supportive, efficient, exciting and interesting; suitable for either individual or collaborative play. Being object-oriented, it is also scalable, extensible and easily portable. An extended Leap-Motion-enhanced AR environment for limb rehabilitation is being developed. We hope that both will improve physical, mental and socio-cognitive health.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Jing Chen

In order to make most patients recover most of their limb functions after rehabilitation training, virtual reality technology is an emerging human-computer interaction technology, which uses the computer and the corresponding application software to build the virtual reality environment. Completing the training tasks in the virtual environment attracts the patients to conduct repeated training in the game and task-based training mode and gradually realizes the rehabilitation training goals. For the rehabilitation population with certain exercise ability, the kinematics of human upper limbs is mainly analyzed, and the virtual reality system based on HTC VIVE is developed. The feasibility and work efficiency of the upper limb rehabilitation training system were verified by experiments. Adult volunteers who are healthy and need rehabilitation training to participate in the experiment were recruited, and experimental data were recorded. The virtual reality upper limb rehabilitation system was a questionnaire. By extracting the motion data, the system application effect is analyzed and evaluated by the simulation diagram. Follow-up results of rehabilitation training showed that the average score of healthy subjects was more than 4 points and 3.8 points per question. Therefore, it is feasible to perform upper limb rehabilitation training using the HTC VIVE virtual reality rehabilitation system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-341
Author(s):  
Marco Tramontano ◽  
Giovanni Morone ◽  
Sara De Angelis ◽  
Laura Casagrande Conti ◽  
Giovanni Galeoto ◽  
...  

Background: Sensor-based technological therapy devices may be good candidates for neuromotor rehabilitation of people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), especially for treating upper extremities function limitations. The sensor-based device rehabilitation is characterized by interactive therapy games with audio-visual feedback that allows training the movement of shoulders, elbows, and wrist, measuring the strength and the active range of motion of upper limb, registering data in an electronic database to quantitatively monitoring measures and therapy progress. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects of sensor-based motor rehabilitation in add-on to the conventional neurorehabilitation, on increasing the upper limb functions of patients with MS. Methods: Thirty patients were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group. The training consisting of twelve sessions of upper limb training was compared with twelve sessions of upper limb sensory-motor training, without robotic support. Both rehabilitation programs were performed for 40 minutes three times a week, for 4 weeks, in addition to conventional therapy. All patients were evaluated at the baseline (T0) and after 4 weeks of training (T1). Results: The within-subject analysis showed a statistically significant improvement in both groups, in the Modified Barthel Index and in the Rivermead Mobility Index scores and a significant improvement in Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 in the experimental. The analysis of effectiveness revealed that, compared with baseline (T0), the improvement percentage in all clinical scale scores was greater in the experimental group than the control group. Conclusions: Proposed training provides an intensive and functional-oriented rehabilitation that objectively evaluates achieved progress through exercises. Therefore, it can represent a good complementary strategy for hand rehabilitation in MS patients.


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