Design and implementation of a Virtual Reality platform for Upper Limb rehabilitation

Resumen

Robot-aided and virtual reality environments are used usually in rehabilitation tasks due to their high effectiveness. Furthermore, these technologies can be used as rehabilitation exercises complementary to the traditional ones. In fact, combining these two types of rehabilitation allows patients to receive more quantity of therapy. The use of serious games enables patients to feel more motivated and increase the engagement to the treatment and the level of attention during the motor rehabilitation process. Therefore, these therapies can improve motor learning and functional mobility in patients with motor impairments. In the rehabilitation process proposed by mean of serious games, patients feel a haptic feedback for exercising the arm muscles strengthening. Consequently, the system provides to the patient a total immersion sensation in the serious games. To test the serious games and to check the usability of the platform, a proof of concept was made. The study was carried out for obtaining data which supports the feasibility of the platform developed and to examine if spinal cord injured patients have the ability to manipulate the applications in a successful way.