IEEE Citation: D. Charles, K. Pedlow, S. McDonough, K. Shek and T. Charles, 'Close range depth sensing cameras for virtual reality based hand rehabilitation', Jnl of Assistive Technologies, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 138-149, 2014.
Introduction
This paper has done a research on how to use close range depth sensing cameras can be used for hand rehabilitation. The researches uses Leap Motion sensor which tracks hands and fingers operating with low latency and a higher precision of 0.01 mm to implement VR based rehabilitation games. The research team includes two individuals from a serious games software company, two academics from Health and Rehabilitation Technologies, and an academic from Computing and Engineering. The Computing academic along with the CEO at the company
co-supervised a software engineer within the company throughout the development
process. They built three games which can be used for hand rehabilitation process. The games are simulations of hand focused rehabilitation tasks. They presented it into a set of physiotherapists and occupational therapists and evaluated it using their responses to the questionnaires and the time scores taken after playing the simulated game.
Contribution and Novelty
This research includes an implementation of previous work related into depth sensing cameras and VR based hand rehabilitation. The novelty of this research is that they have used Leap Motion sensor for their implementation and the way they evaluate it. Generally, evaluation of a hand rehabilitation game is done using some patients that are having some mortal issues with their hands. But in this scenario, evaluation has been after presenting it in to a group of physiotherapists and occupational therapists since their aim is to suggest a workable, fully completed solution that can be used for the hand rehabilitation.
How does it relates in to my work?
In the introduction of this research, the researchers have reviewed some of the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) games like PlayStation EyeToy, Nintendo Wiimote and Microsoft Kinect since on of the research approach is to investigate sensor based COTS games for rehabilitation. The researchers shows that the use of COTS games in rehabilitation has been found to be more engaging than conventionaal therapies. This is one of the main motivations for my research. Since COTS games are mainly implemented for game-play rather than being tailored to treatments, many researchers are investigating and designing new ways to use the effectiveness of COTS games in to rehabilitation therapies.
The development process of the software described under the title "Design and Development Process" explains the key points which need tho think and follow while using evolutionary approach like agile methodology. Additionally, they have done some review about the SDK and 3D engines they have searched for. Since it is important to build a proof of concept (POC) for my research, these reviews are quite important for me to select suitable SDKs, engines for my purpose. They have selected and described three well-known rehabilitation tasks for virtualisation. It is also a plus point since I can get an idea about how the POC need to be build. In their description, they also define some parameters which need to be calculated when doing those tasks. It helps me to get an idea about the evaluation of a task.
Before starting the evaluation of the implemented games, they have presented them in to the participants and demonstrated their game. It is an important thing to do in the evaluation of my system too. Otherwise, participants are not clearly aware of the system and the evaluation process as well. They have evaluated the system using the game and using a questionnaire as well.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
- High accuracy gained when tracking hand and fingers since Leap Motion is used
- Leap Motion has low maintenance cost
- Results shows that clinicians were largely positive about the use of our Leap Motion approach in their practice, particularly for use in the home
- Limited graphics and CPU processing power needed
Disadvantages
- User does not experience tactile feedback
- Motion sickness and vertigo
- Requires additional setup which can be troublesome for widespread home use.
- The implemented UI is not in a easy to use way.
Suggested future work
The researchers have included a question for getting participants comments about their implementation, participants have suggested to implement the game with more fun and engagement. They have algo suggested to implement different types games with a range of activities suitable for different types of age groups.
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