It is widely accepted that rigorous rehabilitation exercises after a stroke can help restore some functionality. However for many patients, this means exercises at home with minimal, if any, clinician support. Technologies that help motivate and promote good exercises offer significant potential but need to be designed to realistically take account of real homes and real lives of the people who have had a stroke. As part of the Motivating Mobility project, we carried out a series of visits to homes of people living with stroke and photographed their homes. In contrast to many utopian smart home scenarios, the elderly of today live in homes that were built as homes fit for heroes' but have been evolved and adapted over time and present significant challenges for the design of in‐home rehabilitation technologies. These challenges include the uses and repurposing of use of rooms, attitudes to and uses of existing technologies, space available in the home, feelings about different spaces within homes and individual preferences and interests. The findings provide a set of sensitivities that will help shape and frame ongoing design work for the successful deployment of rehabilitation technologies in real homes.

Abstract. We present a design framework for a sensor-based stroke rehabilitation system for use at home developed through the analysis of data collected from a series of workshops. Participants had a variety of backgrounds and included people living with stroke and health professionals who work with them. Our focus in these workshops was to learn more about the social context around stroke care, to share early project ideas and develop a design framework for developing systems. In this paper we present a detailed analysis of participant responses and use this analysis to draw specific conclusions about the components and configuration that we believe should be in future systems.

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This paper summarises preliminary work comparing conductive yarns, knitting structures and yarn compositions in order to integrate smart sensor strips into a surrounding garment as a kinematic measurement tool. The conductive areas of the garment were to be used as a strain-sensitive material; ultimately measuring knee joint movement. In total, thirty sample fabrics were developed using conductive yarns; six of which were chosen to be tested for responsiveness during repeated strain. Preliminary tests showed good levels of responsiveness to strain and acceptable levels of recovery.