VR-Wheel: a Rehabilitation Platform for Motor Recovery

Author

Secco, Emanuele Lindo ; Sottile, Roberto ; Davalli, Angelo ; Calori, Luigi ; Cappello, Angelo ; Chiari, Lorenzo

Author_Institution

Department of Electronics, Computer Sciences and Systems (DEIS), University of Bologna, Viale Risorgimento, 2 - 40136 Bologna, Italy, ph.: +39 051 209.3067; fax: +39 051 209.3073; e-mail: elsecco@deis.unibo.it.

fYear

2007

fDate

27-29 Sept. 2007

Firstpage

39

Lastpage

43

Abstract

In this paper we introduce VR-Wheel, a platform combining cognitive and motor-learning tasks, intended for motor recovery in lower limb amputee and tetraplegia patients in post-traumatic conditions. The main feature of the platform is its versatility from the biomechanical, hardware and software viewpoint, since the design of the application is such that patients´ own wheelchairs are transformed into an USB mouse, interfaced with any types of mouse-drivable graphics and/or software and any kind of operative system. The mechanics is flexible and the dedicated VR-environment is user friendly and easily tunable to different, specific clinical requirements. In this paper we present its general design and some scenarios for its clinical use.

Keywords

Application software; Computer graphics; Hardware; Instruments; Mice; Propulsion; Psychology; Universal Serial Bus; Virtual reality; Wheelchairs;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Virtual Rehabilitation, 2007

Conference_Location

Venice, Italy

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1204-4

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-1204-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICVR.2007.4362127

Filename

4362127