Creating and sharing knowledge for telecommunications

Physical Rehabilitation based on Smart Wearable and Virtual Reality Serious Game

Alexandre, R. ; Postolache, O. ; Girão, P.M.

Physical Rehabilitation based on Smart Wearable and Virtual Reality Serious Game, Proc IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference I2MTC, Auckland, New Zealand, Vol. 1, pp. 1 - 6, May, 2019.

Digital Object Identifier:

 

Abstract
The paper describes a solution for physical
rehabilitation of upper limbs based on Virtual Reality (VR)
therapeutic serious games and IoT wearable devices expressed
by smart sensors embedded in a headband and two gloves. The
implemented smart sensors are based in Arduino Nano platform
connected to an IMU 9DOF module. In the case of smart gloves,
a set of force and flexion sensors (FlexiForce & FlexSensors 2.2)
were considered to provide information about the finger flexion
and finger force contact. The communication between the
wearable modules and the virtual reality computation platform
is performed using Bluetooth communication protocol. A
software was developed and includes the VR serious games for
hands and fingers rehabilitation. A Web API was used to store
and process the data acquired by the sensors and to extract
information about user physical capabilities and limitations
during the training. A cross-platform mobile application was
developed for user electronic record including training data
visualization purposes. Experimental data obtained during the
rehabilitation sessions, including metrics evolution that
characterize upper limb and finger motion, are included in the
article.