A virtual environment with haptic feedback for the treatment of motor dexterity disabilities

We present an immersive virtual environment (VE) including visual, auditory and haptic feedbacks, which has been designed specifically to help to recover or improve the motor dexterity of the arm and hand in patients affected by disorders of motor coordination. The realization of an effective haptic feedback on the human arm and hand is the most critical issue for such application. Innovative approaches have been followed for the monitoring of upper limb movements; the replication of forces on the human hand, the real time simulation of interactions between user upper limb and virtual objects, including the simulation of stable grasps; and the accurate synchronization of the various sensory feedbacks. The rehabilitation exercises, which have already been implemented and tested on healthy subjects are described. The major technical solutions adopted are discussed