VR solutions for improving physical therapy

Abstract

We present new solutions based on Virtual Reality technologies for improving the delivery of physical therapy and rehabilitation. Three main aspects are addressed: 1) the ability to allow therapists to create new exercises and therapy programs intuitively by direct demonstration, 2) automatic therapy delivery and monitoring with the use of an autonomous virtual tutor that can monitor and quantitatively assess the motions performed by the patient, and 3) networked collaborative remote therapy sessions via connected applications displaying the motions of both the therapist and the patient.We also provide 3D assessment tools for monitoring changes in the range of motion, and for allowing the visualization of a number of properties during or after the execution of exercises. The presented system has been implemented for a low-cost hardware solution based on Kinect and for a high-end immersive virtual reality facility.

Synchronous Big Data analytics for personalized and remote physical therapy

“…In [4], two different virtual reality applications are proposed using Vicon and Kinect technologies, for both local and remote physical therapy. Avatars of the patient and the therapist are created in real-time within the applications, and the communications between the patient and therapist is through each other's Avatar models.…”

“…On each side, the interactive interface uses a Kinect device along with a local computer (specifications: Windows 7 64 bits, RAM 4 GB, HDD 500GB, Gigabit NIC) that is mounted on a mobile cart that has a large display (specification: 1920x1080 px). 4 …”

Sharing and bridging information in a collaborative virtual environment: Application to ergonomics

“…These interactions may happen on distinct objects, or on different parts of a same object, or even on the same part (at the same time) of a shared virtual object [14]. Such applications have already been proposed to improve physical therapy and rehabilitation through a networked collaboration between a patient and a therapist [15]- [17].…”

Assistive Smart Sensing Devices for Gait Rehabilitation Monitoring

“…The analysis of the human body movement is commonly done in so-called 'gaits laboratories'. In these laboratories, body movement is measured by a camera system using optical markers [2], the ground reaction force (GRF) using a force plate fixed in the floor [3], and the muscle activity using EMG [4]. From the body movements and ground reaction forces, joint moments and powers can be estimated by applying inverse dynamics methods [5] providing estimate of the rehabilitation progress.…”