Virtual Intelligent Techniques for Rehabilitation of Persons with Motor Disability : VIBHRA

VIHBRA is a virtual intelligent platform for motor rehabilitation of  persons  with disabilities.  It  combines  experience  from  virtual  reality  and  knowledge  from  machine  intelligence  to  enhance  neural  reorganization  that  optimize  the  physical  rehabilitation   outcomes   in   individuals   with   disability.   It provides  stimulating  sensory  feedback  to  promote  motor  learning and encompasses tools that help to understand the biology   of   disability.   The   system   integrates   inexpensive   devices  like  Microsoft  Kinect  and  Wii  Balance  Board  to improve balance and neuromuscular functions. Quantification of motor disability is done through presenting the individuals with  situations/tasks  that  require  use  of  groups  of  muscles  and  body  parts  like  an  augmented  rehabilitation  measure  such as Virtual Function Reach Test.

• Real-time visual feedback of the executed movements allows the persons with disabilities to perceive a picture of his movement projected on the screen  in  real-time and correct compensatory postural adjustment and movement learning.
• Visual response combined with verbal instructions by the system (zero  physiotherapist assistance), can ease the learning of body postures with better   biomechanical arrangement while executing the tasks and activities.
• The therapy system provides intense, continuous and repetitive training to the individuals with disability, simultaneously bringing maximum engagement  through  fun, animated virtual environments.
• The  system incorporates a novel virtual functional reach test, modified functional reach test and other clinical measures that makes daily quantification of  improvement lot easier.
• The system also continuously records the performance of the users and report it  when and wherever required over cloud.
  
  

The virtual rehabilitation system developed has been used on patients with Spinal Cord Injury in an ethically approved clinical trial. The rehabilitation system includes therapy exercises for standing balance, sitting balance, range of motion, and strengthening exercises for both upper and lower limb. The developed system was successfully able to engage the patients in a multidimensional, multisensory virtual environment that appear to be and feel comparable to real events. This brought motivation and voluntary engagement in the patients to perform rehabilitation through the developed
system.