Animation of 3D Avatars for Rehabilitation of the Upper Limbs

Abstract

The paper presents a 3D Virtual Environment (VE)\ud for neurorehabilitation of the upper limb. Patients move one\ud of their arms trying to simulate concrete daily actions, such\ud as grasping a bottle, opening a door or putting a book on a\ud shelve. They wear a special garment that integrates four inertial\ud sensors providing in real time information on the orientation of\ud the patient’s shoulder, elbow and wrist. The VE is a complete\ud scenario integrating all the objects needed to perform virtually\ud the actions simulated by the patients. In the VE, patients are\ud represented by 3D avatars that, using the data provided by the\ud inertial sensors, reproduce in real time their arm movements.\ud Since only the arm movement is monitorized, but neither the\ud hand nor the trunk and the neck, the system must combine real\ud movements with baked animations in order to show a realistic\ud behavior of the 3D avatar. Moreover, it must take into account\ud collisions between the 3D avatar and the virtual objects. Finally,\ud it must detect when the patient is about to simulate an interaction\ud with an object in order to realize it virtually. We describe the\ud strategies that we have designed to provide these functionalities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Interactive wearable systems for upper body rehabilitation: a systematic review

“…Our results show that virtual reality has been commonly used within the included studies (three studies [37–39] in 2010, two [45, 46] in 2011, one [56] in 2013, three [62, 67, 68] in 2014 and one [69] in 2015). Further to using a computer screen as a visual feedback display, the emergence of smartphones is reflected on the number of the systems providing feedback on smartphones: 0 in 2010–2012, two [54, 58] in 2013, five [59, 60, 63, 64, 66] in 2014, four [70, 72–74] in 2015 and two [76, 77] in 2016.…”

“…)[4, 40, 44, 48, 50, 60, 63–65, 72, 75, 77, 79]3D model of limb or human body or structure[37, 41, 43, 46, 53, 56, 68–70]Game[42, 45, 59, 62, 66, 67]HapticVibrotactile display[51, 52, 57, 61]AuditoryMusical pattern[78]Multi-modal[3, 38, 39, 47, 49, 54, 55, 58, 71, 73, 74, 76] …”

“…Knowledge of performance informs about the movement characteristics that led to the performance outcome [83]. One common way is to present kinematic information such as position, time, velocity, and patterns [37, 41, 45, 46, 60]. Ding et al [52] and Panchanathan et al [61] proposed feedback on arm movement performance by vibrotactile feedback on directing towards the correct posture.…”

A Survey of Multimodal Systems and Techniques for Motor Learning

“…The observational data of a motion is often allocated to this channel in such a way that a user can have a visual reference by which to compare his or her motion to the ideal trajectory or posture [57]. Research on visual feedback has utilized the real-time projections of a user [68], a trainer/expert [69], and both simultaneously [70].…”

Design of Lower Limb Chair Exercise Support System with Depth Sensor

“…In recent years, we have seen growing interest in serious game or gamification, where game thinking and game mechanics are used in non-game contexts such as to improve user engagement in learning and training [14], [15]. For example, in their work on stand-up rehabilitation, Matsukuma et al developed a game that markedly improves patient motivation and persistence to do the rehabilitation exercise which is strongly recommended [3].…”