RehabHand: Oriented-tasks serious games for upper limb rehabilitation by using Leap Motion Controller and target population in spinal cord injury

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is a growing interest in the use of technology in the field of neurorehabilitation in order to quantify and generate knowledge about sensorimotor disorders after neurological diseases, understanding that the technology has a high potential for its use as therapeutic tools. Taking into account that the rehabilitative process of motor disorders should extend beyond the inpatient condition, it’s necessary to involve low-cost technology, in order to have technological solutions that can approach the outpatient period at home. OBJECTIVE: to present the virtual applications-based RehabHand prototype for the rehabilitation of manipulative skills of the upper limbs in patients with neurological conditions and to determine the target population with respect to spinal cord injured patients. METHODS: Seven virtual reality applications have been designed and developed with a therapeutic sense, manipulated by means of Leap Motion Controller. The target population was determined from a sample of 40 people, healthy and patients, analyzing hand movements and gestures. RESULTS: The hand movements and gestures were estimated with a fitting rate between the range 0.607–0.953, determining the target population by cervical levels and upper extremity motor score. CONCLUSIONS: Leap Motion is suitable for a determined sample of cervical patients with a rehabilitation purpose.

Plasticity in Cervical Motor Circuits following Spinal Cord Injury and Rehabilitation

“…Novel technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), allow individuals with SCI to perform more complex physical therapy independently and from home. VR devices are capable of delivering multiple physical therapy movement routines and accurately tracking associated hand kinematics [175]. Since VR technology only became available a few years ago, there is limited evidence demonstrating that VR therapy may be more beneficial than conventional physical therapy.…”

A research protocol on leap motion tracking device: A novel intervention method in distal radial fracture rehabilitation

“…The leap motion tracking device has proved its efficacy in terms for improving the dexterity of hand following exergaming in patients suffering from Parkinsonism [20]. It has also shown its effectiveness in the patients with spinal cord injury presenting with upper limb limited skills [21]. Nonetheless, it was proposed that leap motion control may have more positive effects in enhancing patient's hand function after distal radius fracture as it provides an improved motion control, extra spatial transformation and more patient entertainment to encourage motion learning.…”

Portable Head-Mounted System for Mobile Forearm Tracking

“…It was a revolutionary device, being very lightweight (only 32 g), compact (80 × 30 × 11.30 mm), fast (between 40 fps to 120 fps, depending on the managing hardware), and precise (about 1 mm) [18,19]. In the beginning, the LMC was designed to be placed and used on a desk and connected to a personal computer, and several works appeared using it in disparate applications [8,[20][21][22][23][24].…”