Laying the groundwork for assisted rehabilitation

ABSTRACT

Motivation -- To provide to physical therapists a monitoring system with effective and accurate patient monitoring and evolution analysis.

Research approach -- We analyzed therapy sessions with tetraplegic patients to better understand the rehabilitation process and highlight the major requirements for a technology-enhanced tool. We developed a prototype able to automate and improve the current monitoring and follow-up processes.

Findings/Design -- Preliminary results indicate that computational movement analysis and comparison can improve the quality of a rehabilitation session and overall patient evolution analysis.

Research limitations/Implications -- Analysis and studies have been performed in a rehabilitation centre with a limited set of therapists (3) and patients (7).

Originality/Value -- The research herein contributes with a requirement analysis for a computer-assisted rehabilitation platform. We present a tracking-based system instantiating these requirements and outline its values after a preliminary informal validation.

Take away message -- The capture and virtual playback of motion in physical therapy sessions increases therapist awareness of patient condition and evolution thus improving the rehabilitation process.

References

1. Zhou, H. & Hu, H. (2004). A Survey -- Human Movement Tracking and Stroke Rehabilitation, Technical Report.
2. Arulampalam M., Maskell S., Gordon N., Clapp T. (2002) A Tutorial on Particle Filters for Online Nonlinear/Non-Gaussian Bayesian Tracking, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 50, pp. 174/188.
3. Welch G., Bishop G. (1995), An Introduction to Kalman Filter, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
4. Pinho, R. R.; Tavares, J. M. R. S. & Correia (2005), M. VA Movement Tracking Management Model with Kalman Filtering, Global Optimization Techniques and Mahalanobis Distance, ICCMSE 2005 - International Conference on Computational Methods in Science and Engineering.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Life and medical sciences

• Human-centered computing

  • Accessibility

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • Empirical studies in HCI