811 research outputs found

    Wearable Haptic Devices for Gait Re-education by Rhythmic Haptic Cueing

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    This research explores the development and evaluation of wearable haptic devices for gait sensing and rhythmic haptic cueing in the context of gait re-education for people with neurological and neurodegenerative conditions. Many people with long-term neurological and neurodegenerative conditions such as Stroke, Brain Injury, Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease suffer from impaired walking gait pattern. Gait improvement can lead to better fluidity in walking, improved health outcomes, greater independence, and enhanced quality of life. Existing lab-based studies with wearable devices have shown that rhythmic haptic cueing can cause immediate improvements to gait features such as temporal symmetry, stride length, and walking speed. However, current wearable systems are unsuitable for self-managed use for in-the-wild applications with people having such conditions. This work aims to investigate the research question of how wearable haptic devices can help in long-term gait re-education using rhythmic haptic cueing. A longitudinal pilot study has been conducted with a brain trauma survivor, providing rhythmic haptic cueing using a wearable haptic device as a therapeutic intervention for a two-week period. Preliminary results comparing pre and post-intervention gait measurements have shown improvements in walking speed, temporal asymmetry, and stride length. The pilot study has raised an array of issues that require further study. This work aims to develop and evaluate prototype systems through an iterative design process to make possible the self-managed use of such devices in-the-wild. These systems will directly provide therapeutic intervention for gait re-education, offer enhanced information for therapists, remotely monitor dosage adherence and inform treatment and prognoses over the long-term. This research will evaluate the use of technology from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, including clinicians, carers and patients. This work has the potential to impact clinical practice nationwide and worldwide in neuro-physiotherapy

    Wearable Haptic Devices For Post- Stroke Gait Rehabilitation

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    Wearable technologies, in the form of small, light and inconspicuous devices, can be designed to help individuals suffering from neurological conditions carry out regular rehabilitation exercises. Current research has shown that walking to a rhythm can lead to significant improvements in various aspects of gait. Our primary aim is to provide a suitable, technology based intervention to enhance gait rehabilitation of people with chronic and degenerative neurological health conditions (such as stroke). This intervention will be in the form of small, lightweight, wireless, wearable devices the user can take out of the clinic, extending their rehabilitation to their own home setting. The devices can deliver a series of vibrations at a steady rhythm giving the patient a more stable and symmetric pace of walking. The simplest version of this approach typically comprise of a very small network of just two nodes and a central controller. The existing prototypes (called the Haptic Bracelets) capture and analyse motion data in real time to provide adaptive haptic (through vibrations) cueing. In the future and after more refinement, the system could allow a single therapist to monitor and advise groups of stroke survivors undergoing therapy sessions

    Questioning Classic Patient Classification Techniques in Gait Rehabilitation: Insights from Wearable Haptic Technology

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    Classifying stroke survivors based on their walking abilities is an important part of the gait rehabilitation process. It can act as powerful indicator of function and prognosis in both the early days after a stroke and long after a survivor receives rehabilitation. This classification often relies solely on walking speed; a quick and easy measure, with only a stopwatch needed. However, walking speed may not be the most accurate way of judging individual’s walking ability. Advances in technology mean we are now in a position where ubiquitous and wearable technologies can be used to elicit much richer measures to characterise gait. In this paper we present a case study from one of our studies, where within a homogenous group of stroke survivors (based on walking speed classification) important differences in individual results and the way they responded to rhythmic haptic cueing were identified during the piloting of a novel gait rehabilitation technique

    A blended user centred design study for wearable haptic gait rehabilitation following hemiparetic stroke

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    Restoring mobility and rehabilitation of gait are high priorities for post-stroke rehabilitation. Cueing using metronomic rhythmic sensory stimulation has been shown to improve gait, but most versions of this approach have used auditory and visual cues. In contrast, we developed a prototype wearable system for rhythmic cueing based on haptics, which was shown to be highly effective in an early pilot study. In this paper we describe a follow-up study with four stroke survivors to inform design, and to identify issues and requirements for such devices to be used in home-based or out-door settings. To this end, we present a blended user-centred design study of a wearable haptic gait rehabilitation system. This study draws on the combined views of physiotherapists, nurses, interaction designers and stroke survivors. Many of the findings were unanticipated, identifying issues outside the scope of initial designs, with important implications for future design and appropriate use

    Robotic biofeedback for post-stroke gait rehabilitation: a scoping review

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    This review aims to recommend directions for future research on robotic biofeedback towards prompt post-stroke gait rehabilitation by investigating the technical and clinical specifications of biofeedback systems (BSs), including the complementary use with assistive devices and/or physiotherapist-oriented cues. A literature search was conducted from January 2019 to September 2022 on Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, PEDro, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Data regarding technical (sensors, biofeedback parameters, actuators, control strategies, assistive devices, physiotherapist-oriented cues) and clinical (participants’ characteristics, protocols, outcome measures, BSs’ effects) specifications of BSs were extracted from the relevant studies. A total of 31 studies were reviewed, which included 660 stroke survivors. Most studies reported visual biofeedback driven according to the comparison between real-time kinetic or spatiotemporal data from wearable sensors and a threshold. Most studies achieved statistically significant improvements on sensor-based and clinical outcomes between at least two evaluation time points. Future research should study the effectiveness of using multiple wearable sensors and actuators to provide personalized biofeedback to users with multiple sensorimotor deficits. There is space to explore BSs complementing different assistive devices and physiotherapist-oriented cues according to their needs. There is a lack of randomized-controlled studies to explore post-stroke stage, mental and sensory effects of BSs.This work has been supported in part by the FEDER Funds through the COMPETE 2020—Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) and P2020 with the Reference Project SmartOs Grant POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039868, and by FCT national funds, under the national support to R&D units grant, through the reference project UIDB/04436/2020 and UIDP/04436/2020, under scholarship reference 2020.05709.BD, and under Stimulus of Scientific Employment with the grant 2020.03393.CEECIND
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