Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOSDescription:
Acquired brain injury (ABI) is the main cause of death and disability among young adults. In most cases, survivors can experience balance instability, resulting in functional impairments that are associated with diminished health-related quality of life. Traditional rehabilitation therapy may be tedious. This can reduce motivation and adherence to the treatment and thus provide a limited benefit to patients with balance disorders. Moreover, falls and fall related injuries are one of the most serious problems in elderly people, many times leading to functional impairments, isolation and even death.
The idea around this thesis is to develop a system based on the Nintendo Wii Balance Board (WBB) or similar, which has been indicated by clinical therapists to improve standing balance in patients with ABI through motivational and adaptive exercises. The system should also be used for fall prevention, using the same type of exercises. The WBB contains four force sensors (located in each corner) that are used to measure the user’s centre of balance and weight.
The system is composed by game-based exercises that were designed in cooperation with physiotherapists, as well as the associated evaluation metrics (Berg balance scale, Brunel balance assessment, etc.). The exercise sessions are tracked by continuously retrieving relevant data from the sensors and the results (according to the provided metrics) may be stored for further analysis by the physiotherapists.
The final result was integrated in the ExerGames platform.
Author: Carlos Brito
Type: MSc thesis
Partner: Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto
Year: 2015
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