Bimanual Asymmetric Coordination in a Three-Dimensional Zooming Task Based on Leap Motion: Implications for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Abstract

This paper explores the practicability of bimanual asymmetric interaction and the factors affecting it when manipulating virtual three-dimensional objects through Leap, a novel hand motion capture device. This research has the potential to aid in the rehabilitation of people with upper limb function impairments. The participants were asked to enlarge a virtual three-dimensional box device to a predefined specified scale. Three influencing factors were addressed, i.e., task difficulty, task allocation and interactive mode. The results indicate that all factors have significant effects on movement time. However, analysis of variance tests shows that there are significant effects on the error rate and spatial patterns due to task difficulty and interactive mode, while no significant effects are found for task allocation. Additionally, task allocation is observed to have significant effects on the time of each hand from zooming phase onset to peak velocity. The action of the nondominant hand is coarser than that of the dominant hand. Interestingly, the velocities of both hands synchronized as the task difficulty level increased, even though the limbs moved at quite different speeds in the initial stage. This research provides insights into how one hand coordinates with the other in terms of the temporal aspects of movement kinematics and thus can help in designing rehabilitative devices that interact with the healthy hand.