A game-type rehabilitation system that can be helpful for exercise and cognitive rehabilitation for the elderly or patients with mild brain disease

Abstract

Among the elderly and patients with mild brain diseases (such as dementia and stroke), when there is a certain degree of self-acting ability and cognitive ability, exercise and cognitive rehabilitation are often required. However, since most of the existing rehabilitation systems are separated or specialized in exercise or cognitive rehabilitation, there is a need for a form linking both. In this paper, we propose a game-type rehabilitation system that enables both exercise and cognitive rehabilitation using CAN communication protocol, one of ICT technologies. This system uses the CAN BUS structure to separate and combine each individual module constituting the rehabilitation system in various forms. A prototype of the proposed system was actually produced to show that various types of rehabilitation environments can be implemented according to the degree of cognitive ability and motor ability of the patient (or the elderly). In addition, through several experiments using this system, it is possible to implement exercise/cognitive parallel rehabilitation applicable to various environments.