A novel approach in rehabilitation of hand-eye coordination and finger dexterity

Abstract

Stroke patients or victims who have been involved in serious accidents often suffer from impaired hand-eye coordination and muscle dexterity. Products, such as nine-hole pegboards, have been designed to help rehabilitate various skills, e. g., perceptual accuracy and finger dexterity. Patients who do not have sufficient muscle strength would not be able to carry out such traditional exercises. This paper presents the research aims at providing a fresh and viable approach to physiotherapy for such patients while emulating the rehabilitation capabilities of traditional products. In this paper, a novel approach, AR-Rehab, for the rehabilitation of hand-eye coordination and finger dexterity has been developed incorporating Augmented Reality (AR) technology. In this application, the users can interact with virtual piano keys in a real-life scene by moving the real hands wearing data-gloves to detect the flexing of the fingers and markers to detect the position of the hands. © 2011 Springer-Verlag London Limited.