Collaborative Rehabilitation Support System: A Comprehensive Solution for Everyday Rehab

Abstract

Repetitive rehabilitation exercises on a regular basis are crucial for enhancing and restoring functional ability and quality of life to those with cognitive and physical disabilities such as stroke. However, a good proportion of patients are often non-compliant to the repetitive exercise regimen prescribed by their therapists. This may be due to a variety of factors including lack of motivation. Although interactive gaming systems such as the Wii by Nintendo and haptic devices have been introduced to make repetitive actions more fun and engaging for typically functioning individuals, challenges still remain for those who have some impairment. Expensive and complicated gaming systems are still not widely used by those with disabilities. In addition, therapists and caregivers, who play an important role in rehabilitation, have not been sufficiently involved. To address these problems as they pertain to people with disabilities, we propose a collaborative rehabilitation support system (CRSS) where mobile-based interactive games are included. Through our approach, we expand in-home rehabilitation to self-rehabilitation which allows users to perform rehab anywhere and anytime. A pilot study involving stroke survivors, caregivers, therapists and physicians was conducted to evaluate our system, and users' feedback is highly positive.