Abstract
Games and virtual reality are new concepts applied to upper limb rehabilitation after stroke. To perform upper limb physiotherapy rehabilitation and restore motor skills through virtual reality resources it is necessary to use an arm tracker, which would be the input of the video game. However, one of the main issues when starting a post-stroke rehabilitation game project is choosing the most suitable gross upper limb motion tracking device. Thus, this article aims to explore the gross upper limb motion tracking devices most commonly used in the scientific literature. To carry out this research, literature searches in English were conducted up to December 2020 in the ACM, PubMed and IEEE Xplore databases. We have selected a total of ninety-five (95) articles. In these studies, we identified the most used gross upper limb motion devices and we classified them into 5 different categories: RGB-D skeletal tracking, RGB object tracking, IR marker tracking, LeapMotion and RGB markerless body tracking. We found that most studies (52%) used RGB-D skeletal tracking. In addition, we found fifteen (15) different commercial systems or tracking devices and the most used was Kinect® (47% of all studies). However, it was not possible to generalize whether one device is better than the other. Although the amount of research in this area has increased significantly in recent years, additional studies are still needed to quantify the potential of the use of gross upper limb motion tracking devices in rehabilitation with games in post-stroke treatment.
Highlights
According to World Stroke Organization (WSO), there are over 13.7 million new strokes each year (WSO, 2021).Stroke often causes dysfunctions in the upper limb, i.e., combination of muscle weakness, spasticity and discoordination among different muscle groups
We considered the Population, Intervention, Control, Outcome and Study Design (PICO) (Brunnhuber et al, 2006; Moher et al, 2009) approach to design the study selection of this review: 1) Population: Patients enrolled in post-stroke rehabilitation games (PSRG) or other virtual reality (VR) simulations software; 2) Intervention: computer vision (CV) gross upper limb motion (GULM) tracking devices in games or simulations integrated into post-stroke rehabilitation or other motor assessment software; 3) Control: None taken into account; 4) Outcome: We included any measurements related to physical activity and gross motor control before and after intervention; 5) Study design: Randomized controlled trial, cohort and single-session studies
We found ninety-five (95) articles and they were classified into five (5) categories according to the brands or models of optical devices (Table 2)
Summary
According to World Stroke Organization (WSO), there are over 13.7 million new strokes each year (WSO, 2021).Stroke often causes dysfunctions in the upper limb, i.e., combination of muscle weakness, spasticity and discoordination among different muscle groups. In 30% to 66% of patients, the affected arm remains non-functional for at least 6 months after the stroke (Kwakkel et al, 2008; Virani; et al, 2020). Rehabilitation therapy is needed to regain upper limb function. Conventional physiotherapy rehabilitation can be tedious and expensive, as they usually require the transport of stroke patients to rehabilitation centers (Saposnik, 2016). In this scenario, virtual reality (VR) games using motion tracking devices are being used in combination with conventional post-stroke physiotherapy, and have shown potential in helping the recovery of motor functions (Amorim et al, 2020; Laffont et al, 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
