Design and development of a virtual reality haptic-based rehabilitation framework for post-stroke patients

The recovery of hand functions in post-stroke patients relies on the length of therapy that is available to them. Rehabilitation exercises supervised by occupational therapists are characterized by repetitiveness and a constant increase in intensity. The facilities and time allocated to recovering stroke patients restrict the maximum level of rehabilitation that can be attained. Various efforts have been materialized into rehabilitation themes set in virtual environments and carried out via haptic devices. This thesis carries forward in that direction by implementing virtual reality, haptic-based exercises for the purposes of hand rehabilitation. This building step aspires to catalyze the motion to bring about a haptic-based rehabilitation system that can be set in the patient's own house to provide him/her with treatment that is not restricted by time and facilities and that offers continuous evaluation of the patient's improvement. This thesis presents a framework that implemented virtual reality exercises carried out with the use of haptic devices with the aim of being used by recovering stroke patients. The exercises were tested with healthy subjects to collect information pertaining to the hand performance; namely about the movement and grip of the hand. The information collected was extracted from data recorded during the exercise, like position of the hand in the virtual space, and angles made by fingers when grasping objects. By analyzing the data carefully, the research effort deduced certain analysis patterns that would provide occupational therapists with a means to continuously evaluate a patient's performance, and hence provide him/her with adaptive recovery courses