The aim of this project is to create an integrated system for assisting in reaching exercises performed by stroke patients. Current technologies for motion tracking are unwieldy, expensive, and do not cater to the individuality of patients. We aim to alleviate these concerns by introducing a table with positional tracking and guidance, that is adjustable to the dimensions of each patient. The system will maximize comfort of the patient while providing easy, reproducible recordings of reaching exercises in a portable, low-cost package.

Details:

Below is a top down view of the current technology being used at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, DC. Our goal is to improve this technology:

With this current technology,  the patient sits where there is a semi-circular cut out. They place their hands on the home position pads. In front of them are a set of LED indicators and pressure pads. One of the LEDs will light up indicating which pressure pad the patient should reach for. These pressure pads are situated on lips and are adjusted to different distances on the table using velcro strips.

This current set up has several obstacles including the lip of the pressure pad that the stroke patient has to overcome in order to successfully reach their target. Currently many trials are throw out because the patient may reach the pressure pad; however they are unable to lift their hand above the lip to push on the pad to end the trial. Additionally, the velcro strips only allow for targets placed directly in front of the patient instead of anywhere on the table. Lastly, this system requires the patient to first look at the LED indicators and then decide which target to move to. This extra visual cue -trasnformation time presents another obstacle in the current system. With our design we hope to allievate these obstacles.