A Multisession Evaluation of a Collaborative Virtual Environment for Arm Rehabilitation (original) (raw)
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Physical therapy, 2014
A low-cost virtual reality system that translates movements of the hand, fingers, and thumb into game play was designed to provide a flexible and motivating approach to increasing adherence to home-based rehabilitation. Effectiveness depends on adherence, so did patients use the intervention to the recommended level? If not, what reasons did they give? The purpose of this study was to investigate these and related questions. A prospective cohort study, plus qualitative analysis of interviews, was conducted. Seventeen patients recovering from stroke recruited to the intervention arm of a feasibility trial had the equipment left in their homes for 8 weeks and were advised to use it 3 times a day for periods of no more than 20 minutes. Frequency and duration of use were automatically recorded. At the end of the intervention, participants were interviewed to determine barriers to using it in the recommended way. Duration of use and how many days they used the equipment are presented for...
Applied Sciences
Virtual environments (VEs) and haptic devices increase patients’ motivation. Furthermore, they observe their performance during rehabilitation. However, some of these technologies present disadvantages because they do not consider therapists’ needs and experience. This research presents the development and usability evaluation of an upper limb rehabilitation system based on a user-centered design approach for patients with moderate or mild stroke that can perform active rehabilitation. The system consists of a virtual environment with four virtual scenarios and a developed haptic device with vibrotactile feedback, and it can be visualized using a monitor or a Head-Mounted Display (HMD). Two evaluations were carried out; in the first one, five therapists evaluated the system’s usability using a monitor through the System Usability Scale, the user experience with the AttrakDiff questionnaire, and the functionality with customized items. As a result of these tests, improvements were ma...
Cooperative cooking: A novel virtual environment for upper limb rehabilitation
40th International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2018
Motor rehabilitation technologies commonly include virtual environments that motivate patients to exercise more often or more intensely. In this paper, we present a novel virtual rehabilitation environment in which two people work together to prepare meals. The players' roles can be fixed or undefined, and optional challenges can be added in the form of flies that must be swatted away. A preliminary evaluation with 12 pairs of unimpaired participants showed that participants prefer cooperating over exercising alone and feel less pressured when cooperating. Furthermore, participants enjoyed the addition of flies and preferred not to have defined roles. Finally, no significant decrease in exercise intensity was observed as a result of cooperation. These results indicate that cooperation could improve motor rehabilitation by increasing motivation, though the virtual environment needs to be evaluated with participants with motor impairment.
Multi-User Virtual Reality Therapy for Post-Stroke Hand Rehabilitation at Home
Journal on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, 2016
Our paper describes the development of a novel multi-user virtual reality (VR) system for post-stroke rehabilitation that can be used independently in the home to improve upper extremity motor function. This is the pre-clinical phase of an ongoing collaborative, interdisciplinary research project at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago involving a team of engineers, researchers, occupational therapists and artists. This system was designed for creative collaboration within a virtual environment to increase patients’ motivation, further engagement and to alleviate the impact of social isolation following stroke. This is a low-cost system adapted to everyday environments and designed to run on a personal computer that combines three VR environments with audio integration, wireless Kinect tracking and hand motion tracking sensors. Three different game exercises for this system were developed to encourage repetitive task practice, collaboration and competitive interaction. The system...
Rehabilitation research and practice, 2017
Introduction. This small pilot study aimed to examine the feasibility of an upper limb rehabilitation system (the YouGrabber) in a community rehabilitation centre, qualitatively explore participant experiences, and describe changes after using it. Methods and Material. Chronic stroke participants attending a community rehabilitation centre in the UK were randomised to either a YouGrabber or a gym group and completed 18 training sessions over 12 weeks. The motor activity log, box and block, and fatigue severity score were administered by a blinded assessor before and after the intervention. Semistructured interviews were used to ascertain participants' views about using the YouGrabber. Results. Twelve participants (6 females) with chronic stroke were recruited. All adhered to the intervention. There were no adverse events, dropouts, or withdrawal. There were no significant differences between the YouGrabber and gym groups although there were significant within group improvements ...