Title:  Coupling of an Objective and Quantifiable Methodology for Assessing Upper-body with Virtual Reality Gaming Platform

Committee: 

Dr. Howard, Advisor    

Dr. Vela, Chair

Dr. Ames

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to develop, implement, and validate a novel virtual reality gaming system for the upper-body rehabilitation of individuals who have some form of motor skills disorder. In the spirit of improving the efficacy of physical therapy intervention protocols, we focus our efforts towards developing a system that: 1) can be used outside the clinical setting, 2) allows for the individualization of its game settings to meet the specific needs of the user, 3) increases the user's motivation to perform the recommended in-home exercises, 4) is coupled with an objective and quantifiable assessment tool that keeps track of the user's kinematic progress, 5) autonomously adapts its game settings as a function of the user's kinematic performance, and 6) employs physiotherapy techniques - like the rhythmic auditory stimulation technique - to increase the user's rate of improvement. We developed a game called Super Pop VR[TM] that addresses the first three items, and an algorithm that addresses the fourth by generating baseline values in real-time for a set of kinematic parameters to assess the user's kinematic performance. We collected human data throughout various testing sessions to quantify the accuracy of our sensing methods, and to validate the baseline generated by our system. Preliminary results show that the system has the potential to be used as an effective assessment tool to be used outside the clinical setting. We expect that the addition of the last two items will further allow for the individualization of the physiotherapy protocols thus further enhancing the users' rate of recovery.