Design of a game-based rehabilitation system using kinect sensor

Abstract

As technological innovation is fused into the rehabilitation process, it gives conventional therapy a new direction with the products of interactive nature and easy to measure techniques. In the recent years, virtual reality based game therapy has turned out to be a promising option for post-stroke patients since it engages patients with fun based exercises during rehabilitation process. It also triggers their neuro-motor functions and accelerates the recovery process. Nevertheless it is necessary to extract some valuable information from the joint movements to measure the recovery condition of patients. Most of the designed games have introduced features to make them interesting as well as challenging for patients, however, only a few measure the joint parameters. We have designed a Kinect based game in Unity3D platform where patients can play game by moving their joints which results in different orthopaedic lessons required for rehabilitation therapy. In contrast to many Kinect based games where only joint movements are considered for playing the game, we have also introduced voice control through speech recognition and feedback provided in terms of audio-visual command to enhance patient’s engagement. Different joint parameters such as trajectory, range of motion, joint velocity, acceleration, reaching time and joint torque are also measured to help quantify the heath condition.