Robot-Based Image Analysis for Evaluating Rehabilitation after Brain Surgery

After certain types of brain surgery, patients are often affected by changes in both their dynamic balance and facial disorder. Because rehabilitation takes several months, it is important that both doctors and patients are able to monitor progress quantitatively. At present, such quantification is subjective and highly dependent on the doctor’s opinion. Thus, we here investigate the use of robot-based image analysis for measuring rehabilitation. To evaluate a patient’s dynamic balance, we developed a mobile robotic platform that uses a stereovision camera (MS Kinect) to capture a video of the subject walking along a hospital corridor. To evaluate a patient’s facial disorders, the same camera is used in a static mode to detect and capture precise facial movements that the subject is asked to perform. From these videos, specific patterns can be extracted for rehabilitation process description