LeaPhysio: games enhanced physical rehabilitation

Abstract

In certain areas of the medical sciences, particularly in the field of physiotherapy, there is increasing needs on objective evaluation of the rehabilitation progress that creates new opportunities to the application of the ICT. As part of the new technologies the serious games are ones that can help the patient in the way of motivation that may help during recovery process. The dissertation describes the design, implementation and testing of "LeaPhysio - Games Enhanced Physical Rehabilitation system". This system may be used by the physiotherapists and patients during hand and finger rehabilitation process. Using highly interactive games, developed for Leap Motion controller natural user interfaces, it's possible to assess the patient's performance throughout different physical activities. Through the games, developed in Unity 3D, with controller support, it’s possible to obtain the patient performance data during the various training sessions. All information regarding training the established training plans, results and other data is stored on a remote server. The stored information can be accessed through a mobile application, developed in Android, for the physiotherapist, mobile application that can be also used for configuration of the serious games. The use of serious games allows the patient with motor impairments, produce a dynamic interaction and a different approach in the execution of traditional exercises in recovery treatment. The system allows an unlimited number of training sessions to be performed, which can be consulted at any time through the mobile application. In this way, it's possible to visualize historical values, and to compare the results of the different training sessions, analyzing their evolution.