Haptic Feedback Interfaces for Rehabilitation
By Burdea, Grigore; Proceedings: State of the Science Conference on Telerehabilitation and Applications of Virtual Reality,(Pages: 5) Publication Date: October 2001
Article discusses the use of haptic (touch-based) feedback interfaces for rehabilitation, which have four primary advantages over classical therapeutic devices: (1) they can serve both evaluation and rehabilitation purposes, (2) provide economy of scale, since the same haptic interface can be mapped to different types of virtual rehabilitation devices, (3) allow for real-time data collection on a much finer resolution than most classical methods, and without the need for data entry, and (4) when integrated with virtual exercises, haptic rehabilitation interfaces provide an engaging and motivational rehabilitation environment. Two haptic hardware interfaces are described: (1) the Rutgers Master (RM) II, and (2) the Rutgers Ankle. The RM II consists of four pneumatic actuators attached to an L-shaped platform. Each actuator has three non-contract sensors, which measure the fingertip position in spherical coordinates. Each actuator has a glass-graphite interior, with extremely small friction forces, resulting in a very large dynamic range. The Rutgers Ankle was designed for lower extremity rehabilitation, and consists of a platform robot that measures ankle position and orientation while resisting motion, and six actuators, so it can provide attracting and repelling forces and torques up to 750 newtons. Pilot clinical trials were performed with both the RM II and the Rutgers Ankle haptic interfaces in order to gauge their efficacy in providing training to orthopedic and post-stroke clients. The authors concluded that both are good candidates for use at home in future rehabilitation environments.
Published by: National Rehabilitation Hospital Press (Website:http://www.nrhrehab.org/default.aspx)
RERC on Telerehabilitation (Web Site: http://www.rerctr.pitt.edu/index.html )
Link to text: http://www.telerehab-nrh.org/SOS/Session/proceedings.pdf
ISBN: 0-966-1676-2-7
This publication is included in the library of the National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC), accession number O14725
