RehabHand: Oriented-tasks serious games for upper limb rehabilitation by using Leap Motion Controller and target population in spinal cord injury

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the use of technology in the field of neurorehabilitation in order to quantify and generate knowledge about sensorimotor disorders after neurological diseases, understanding that the technology has a high potential for its use as therapeutic tools. Taking into account that the rehabilitative process of motor disorders should extend beyond the inpatient condition, it's necessary to involve low-cost technology, in order to have technological solutions that can approach the outpatient period at home. to present the virtual applications-based RehabHand prototype for the rehabilitation of manipulative skills of the upper limbs in patients with neurological conditions and to determine the target population with respect to spinal cord injured patients. Seven virtual reality applications have been designed and developed with a therapeutic sense, manipulated by means of Leap Motion Controller. The target population was determined from a sample of 40 people, healthy and patients, analyzing hand movements and gestures. The hand movements and gestures were estimated with a fitting rate between the range 0.607-0.953, determining the target population by cervical levels and upper extremity motor score. Leap Motion is suitable for a determined sample of cervical patients with a rehabilitation purpose.