What is it about?

In this paper, we present an immersive virtual reality stroke rehabilitation game based on a widely accepted therapy method, Constraint-Induced Therapy, that was evaluated by nine post-stroke participants. We implement our game as a dynamically adapting system that can account for the user's motor abilities while recording real-time motion capture and behavioral data. The game also can be used for telerehabilitation, effectively allowing therapists to connect with the participant remotely while also having access to +90Hz real-time biofeedback data. Our quantitative and qualitative results suggest that our system is useful in increasing affordability, accuracy, and accessibility of post-stroke motor treatment.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Traditional forms of physical therapy and rehabilitation are often based on therapist observation and judgment, coincidentally this process oftentimes can be inaccurate, expensive, and non-timely. Modern immersive Virtual Reality systems provide a unique opportunity to make the therapy process smarter. This study presents a novel immersive virtual reality experience on gamifying stroke rehabilitation and automating patient success metrics.

Perspectives

The physical rehabilitation communities have been expressing great enthusiasm for the potential to use gaming as away to motivate individuals post-stroke to perform intensive repetitive task-based therapy, combined with motion capture as a way to track therapy compliance and progress. "Project Star Catcher," an iVR game developed with the HTC Vive, provided a user-centered method of motorrehabilitation that contributed to a fun and motivating way to perform exercise. From a preliminary study with nine post-stroke users, PSC has shown the potential for high compliance and increased biofeedback that can be implemented in the clinic or through telerehabilitation.

Aviv Elor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Towards an Immersive Virtual Reality Game for Smarter Post-Stroke Rehabilitation, June 2018, Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE),
DOI: 10.1109/smartcomp.2018.00094.
You can read the full text:

Read

Resources

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page