MOBEEZE. Natural Interaction Technologies, Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence for Gait Disorders Analysis and Rehabilitation in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is the most common degenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease. Generally affecting elderly groups, it has a strong limiting effect on physical functioning and performance of roles, vitality and general perception of health. Since the disease is progressive, the patient knows he's going to get worse. The deterioration is significant not only in mobility but also in pain, social isolation, and emotional reactions. Freezing is a phenomenon associated with this disease and it is characterized by a motor disorder that leaves the patient literally stuck to the ground. Mobeeze is designed with the main objective of providing health personnel with a tool to analyse, evaluate and monitor the progress of patients’ disorders as well as the personalization and adaptation of rehabilitation sessions in patients with Parkinson's disease. Based on the characteristics measured in real time which will allow the strengthening effects of rehabilitation and help to assimilate them in the long term. The creation of Mobeeze allows the constitution of a system of analysis and evaluation of march disorders in real time, through natural interaction, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. In this project, we will analyse if these non-invasive technologies reduce the stress induced to the patient when he is feeling evaluated

Future Trends of Virtual, Augmented Reality, and Games for Health

Serious game is now a multi-billion dollar industry and is still growing steadily in many sectors. As a major subset of serious games, designing and developing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and serious games or adopting off-the-shelf games to support medical education, rehabilitation, or promote health has become a promising frontier in the healthcare sector since 2004, because games technology is inexpensive, widely available, fun and entertaining for people of all ages, with various health conditions and different sensory, motor, and cognitive capabilities. In this chapter, we provide the reader an overview of the book with a perspective of future trends of VR, AR simulation and serious games for healthcare

The role of rehabilitation with virtual reality in functional ability and quality of life of individuals with Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder of dopaminergic neurons that can cause some mobility limitations, which in turn, can negatively impact quality of life (QOL) of individuals with PD. Virtual reality (VR) has been used to treat these patients. Objective: Evaluate the functional capacity and QOL of individuals with PD using VR with X-Box Kinect®. Methods: 20 individuals classified as stages 1-3, aged 50-80 years were selected. They were randomly divided into two groups (control and experimental) with ten patients in each. The control group (CG) was treated with conventional therapy for five weeks, with two 60-minute sessions per week, whereas the experimental group (EG) had they sessions split in half: conventional physical therapy and virtual rehabilitation (VR). Subjects were evaluated before and after the treatment with the following scales: Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale - (UPDRS) and Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). Result: We found a reduction in scores for all domains of UPDRS and PDQ-39 in both groups, but only in the EG this finding was significant. Conclusion: VR combined with physiotherapy is an efficient method, what may influence the clinical aspect and improve QOL of individuals with PD.A doença de Parkinson (DP) é uma patologia neurodegenerativa e progressiva podendo causar algumas limitações motoras que, por sua vez, podem impactar negativamente na qualidade de vida (QV) de indivíduos com DP. A realidade virtual (RV) vem sendo utilizada como tratamento destes pacientes. Objetivo: Avaliar a capacidade funcional e a QV de indivíduos com DP submetidos à RV com X-Box Kinect®. Método: Foram selecionados 20 indivíduos entre 50 a 80 anos, nos estágios 1 a 3 da doença. Divididos através de sorteio em dois grupos, o controle (GC) e o experimental (GE). O GC tratado com fisioterapia convencional, no período de cinco semanas, com duas sessões semanais de 60 minutos, enquanto o GE passou a metade do tempo com fisioterapia convencional e a outra metade realizou a RV. Os indivíduos foram submetidos a avaliações antes e após o tratamento através das seguintes escalas: UPDRS e PDQ-39. Resultados: Encontrou-se redução nos escores de todos os domínios da UPDRS e do PDQ-39 de ambos os grupos, sendo significativo apenas no grupo da GE. Conclusão: A RV aliada à fisioterapia é um método eficiente, influenciando no aspecto clínico e melhora da QV de indivíduos com DP

Effect of virtual reality rehabilitation on functional outcomes for return-to-work patients with Parkinson's disease: an umbrella review of systematic reviews

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by loss of substantia nigra neurons with deficiency of dopamine. The main symptoms are tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia. Rehabilitation has an important role in the treatment of this condition and virtual reality (VR) is one of the most recent tools. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this umbrella review is to evaluate the effectiveness of VR systems on gait control for return to work in patients with PD. METHODS: The electronic search, for reviews and meta-analysis studies that investigated the effectiveness of VR on gait control in PD patients, was performed through December 2021 using the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, PEDro, and Google Scholar. Mesh terms used were: Job integration/reintegration OR return-to-work AND Parkinson's disease AND virtual reality OR exergame. No limit on the year of publication of the article was used. CONCLUSIONS: A total of 14 articles were included in our analysis. The included evidence shows a stride length improvement in patients treated with VR compared to conventional active treatments. No difference was found in walking speed. Also, the included articles show an improvement on various measures of balance, motor function and severity of PD motor symptoms. In addition, the literature shows an improvement in the quality of life and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients undergoing VR rehabilitation training. RESULTS: he results of our study suggest that VR rehabilitation improves gait performance, particularly stride length, thus being able to provide an improvement in the quality of life and a more effective return to work training in patients with PD

Parkinson's disease patients are able to improve their performance in Xbox Kinect´®s virtual tasks : “a series of cases”

A utilidade dos videogames na reabilitação de pacientes com Doença de Parkinson (PDP) vem sendo demonstrada. Contudo, a discussão sobre a seleção dos jogos utilizados ainda é escassa, embora fundamental para recomendação de seu uso terapêutico. Não foram, até o momento, encontrados estudos sobre a utilização do Xbox Kinect® (XK) na reabilitação de PDP. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar as modificações de desempenho de PDP, decorrentes do treino, por meio das mudanças nas pontuações de jogos do XK, em cada sessão. Sete PDP em estágios leve a moderado realizaram 14 sessões de treinamento em quatro jogos previamente selecionados. As pontuações foram registradas para análise da curva de desempenho entre as sessões. Foram feitas análises de variância para medidas repetidas considerando-se um grupo e 14 sessões, seguidas por testes Post Hoc Tukey-Kramer para verificar as diferenças entre as mesmas (p≤ 0.05). Os resultados mostraram que os PDP melhoraram seu desempenho em todos os jogos, porém em momentos diferentes. Concluiu-se que os PDP do presente estudo mostraram capacidade de melhorar o desempenho em jogos do XK, mas que a melhora depende das demandas e da presença de fatores facilitadores da aprendizagem, reforçando a importância da sua escolha com propósito de reabilitação.The utility of videogames in rehabilitation of patients with Parkinson's disease (PPD) has been demonstrated. However, the discussion about the selection of the games used is still scarce, although crucial for the recommendation of its therapeutic use. No studies involving the use of Xbox Kinect® (XK) in the rehabilitation of PPD have been found. The objective of this study was to investigate the PPD modifications of performance through changes in the scores in each session, in different games of XK. Seven PPD in stages from mild to moderate performed 14 training sessions in 4 games selected. The scores were recorded for analysis of the performance curve intersessions. Analyzes of variance for repeated measures were made considering a group and 14 sessions, followed by post hoc Tukey-Kramer tests to verify the differences between sessions (p ≤ 0.05). The results showed that PPD improved their performances in every game but reaching such improvements at different speeds. It was concluded that the ability to improve performance in XK games, in PPD of study, depends on the demands of the games and the presence of factors facilitating learning, emphasizing the importance of the games selection for the purpose of the rehabilitation

A scoping review and a taxonomy of the use of motion-based technology centered on the end user. A special focus on elderly health

Motion-based technology (MBT) has been applied in the last decades with enormous success in a high number of applications. Its use continues growing and is specially interesting in the health area. Nowadays, its employment is being more and more specialised with respect to the profile of the end user (i.e., child, adolescent/teenager, adult or elderly). This paper first reviews the use of MBT centered in the end user from a global perspective. It also proposes a taxonomy that allows cataloguing the MBT employment directed to the end user. Then, from these results, the paper centers the review on the MBT application aiming to improve the health of elderly. The results highlighted in this paper can help to a better understanding of MBT, especially when it is applied thinking in elderly as the end users.This study is partially funded by the Universidad de Málaga with the national project Bio4Res (PID2021-125184NB-I00) from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci ́on de Espa ̃na (MCIN). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA

The effects of virtual rehabilitation therapy on multiple sclerosis

In this review article, the effect of virtual rehabilitation therapy on multiple sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disorder, is explored. Multiple sclerosis is characterized by damaged nerves that result in incomplete signal processing between the brain and the spinal cord. The symptoms of this condition can include vision loss, decreased coordination, pain, fatigue, and deteriorating motor output. The severity of the symptoms and the rate of progression of multiple sclerosis can vary from person to person; some individuals live the majority of their lives with mild symptoms while others become bedridden and immobile. There is no cure for this disease, however implementation of virtual reality rehabilitation therapy shows promise in slowing the progression of deterioration in motor output and cognition. Through a variety of methods incorporating virtual reality, this review investigates the effects of this type of therapy on balance, manual dexterity, and mental health in patients with multiple sclerosis