Interactive serious game for shoulder rehabilitation based on real-time hand tracking.

Abstract

Virtual reality is becoming popular in the rehabilitation field thanks to the several advantages it can offer to patients and physicians. Indeed, serious games can: motivate and engage the patient; offer different levels of challenge and difficulty based on the patient baseline, and integrate objective measures of the patient's performance during each rehabilitation session. We designed and implemented a serious game for shoulder rehabilitation based on real-time hand tracking. The aim was to maintain the medical benefits of traditional rehabilitation, while reducing human resources and costs and facilitating active patient participation. Our software application provides the user with a shoulder horizontal adduction exercise. This exercise takes place in a 2D interactive game environment, controlled by hand movements on a desk pad. The hardware includes a standard desktop computer and screen, and the Leap Motion Controller: a hand tracking system. Changing the desk pad material allows the physiotherapist to vary the friction between the user hand and the supporting surface. Fourteen healthy volunteers and six rehabilitation experts tested our serious game. The results showed that the application is attractive, ergonomic and clinically useful. Despite promising results, clinical validation is necessary to demonstrate the efficacy of the serious game.