Mixed reality Kinect Mirror box for stroke rehabilitation

Mirror Box therapy is used for rehabilitating stroke patients who have lost control of a hand. The therapy uses mirrors to give patients the illusion that movements of their healthy hand are movements of their impaired hand. The goal of this stimulation is to enable the healthy part of the brain to learn to control the impaired hand. In this paper we present a mirror therapy tool developed using the Kinect motion sensor. We evaluate five different finger tracking SDKs using a controlled environment resembling a clinical setup. The strengths and weaknesses of each SDK are discussed and compared in a trade-off matrix which attempts to quantify the individual performances. We present some algorithmic improvements to hand and finger tracking, explain how this information is used to control a skeletally animated hand, and present a simple game to make exercises more enjoyable. We evaluate our application and identify shortcomings of the presented technique.