Researchers Developing Haptic-Based Technology to Assist In-Home Rehab Care
From: Medical Design Technology - 10/16/2015

In the future, the occupational therapist helping you relearn how to use a
fork following a stroke might be a computer.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the
University of Buffalo are developing new technology that could assist stroke
victims and others with occupational and physical therapy at home. The
project, "Cognitive Haptic-Based Rehabilitation System for Patient-Centric
Home," is funded by the National Science Foundation at $708,000 for three
years.

Researchers in Illinois’ Coordinated Science Lab are developing a system
based on haptics, the process of recognizing objects through touch. The team
is working to create a low-cost model that can help enforce proper technique
through exercises, which will be designed using data collected by analyzing
the motion of healthy subjects. In particular, the work will target fine
motor skills - which usually involves synching the hand and fingers to make
small movements - over gross motor skills, which are less challenging to
rehabilitate.

The system will have three main components: a hardware platform, a
remote-access interface so that an off-site therapist can monitor progress
and modify the therapy regimen as needed, and a brain-machine interface that
allows the system to adapt itself to the patient's level of effort based on
cognitive measurement. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mdtmag.com/2015/10/researchers-developing-haptic-based-technology-assist-home-rehab-care
http://csl.illinois.edu/news/illinois-researchers-developing-new-technology-assist-home-rehab-care