Guidance and Movement Correction Based on Therapeutics Movements for Motor Rehabilitation Support Systems

Abstract

The use of Virtual and Augmented Reality systems for motor rehabilitation is increasing mainly due to the new interaction tools which enable interaction through body movements. To improve these systems it is important to provide movement guidance and correction according to the therapeutic description of it. The use of natural interaction can help due the understanding of user's intentions, e.g. analyzing their body movements allows the application to provide information and encouragement to them in real time, improving the interaction and the treatment process as a whole. Thus, the aim of this research is to provide guidance and correction to performed movements based on the therapeutic definition of them. This is applied on motor rehabilitation through the use of the Kinect sensor as interaction support tool for rehabilitation systems. The Kinect sensor gives three-dimensional information about the user body, recognizing skeleton and joint positions, however, it does not provide detection of body specific movements. This way, the correct description of therapeutic movement (upper limbs, for instance) was implemented in a prototype. A scoring mechanism was also developed in order to measure the patient performance, as well as to encourage him/her to improve it by displaying a positive feedback whenever he does a correct movement.