Multi-User Virtual Reality Therapy for Post-Stroke Hand Rehabilitation at Home

Abstract

Our paper describes the development of a novel multi-user virtual reality (VR) system for post-stroke rehabilitation that can be used independently in the home to improve upper extremity motor function. This is the pre-clinical phase of an ongoing collaborative, interdisciplinary research project at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago involving a team of engineers, researchers, occupational therapists and artists. This system was designed for creative collaboration within a virtual environment to increase patients' motivation, further engagement and to alleviate the impact of social isolation following stroke. This is a low-cost system adapted to everyday environments and designed to run on a personal computer that combines three VR environments with audio integration, wireless Kinect tracking and hand motion tracking sensors. Three different game exercises for this system were developed to encourage repetitive task practice, collaboration and competitive interaction. The system is currently being tested with 15 subjects in three settings: a multi-user VR, a single-user VR and at a tabletop with standard exercises to examine the level of engagement and to compare resulting functional performance across methods. We hypothesize that stroke survivors will become more engaged in therapy when training with a multi-user VR system and this will translate into greater gains.

Keywords

• Rehabilitation
• Stroke
• Interactive Environments
• Serious Games
• Upper Extremity
• Virtual Reality
• Social Interaction