Research Studies:
STUDY 4: Use of Virtual Environments and Haptics in Neurorehabilitation Therapy
(Rizzo and McLaughlin)Study 4 will develop novel virtual environments that can uniquely target a wide range of physical, psychological, and cognitive rehabilitation concerns and research questions in stroke rehabilitation. The primary goal of this project is to develop virtual environments (VEs) that include different levels of haptic sensory feedback and to evaluate the effectiveness of these applications for neurorehabilitation training. The tasks to be performed within these VEs will span a range of activities from everyday functional tasks to game-like activities designed to motivate specific motor action that is believed to underlie more functional behavior. The outcome of this work will be to create VE applications that will be evaluated for both the usability of the VE interface and display devices by patient populations following stroke and for the impact that training in these environments has on both motor performance and cortical reorganization.
In Year 1, we propose to create three VE systems that expand on applications that we have currently in development that use three different types of haptic feedback devices. The haptic devices that we have available can be applied to a progressive set of training tasks from precise fine motor movements, fine and gross motor hand activities and gross reaching movements that involve full arm, shoulder and torso activity. The three systems and tasks are:
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The PHANToM(see Haptics Movie on CD)is a small, desk-grounded robot that permits simulation of single or two-fingertip contact with virtual objects through a thimble or stylus. Fine motor movement can be trained using the PHANToM Device. This device will be used as the interface for a series of tasks that allow the patient to move a small coin into a slot on a vending machine, to rotate small objects to obtain a better view of the objects, and to pick up and place buttons in a sewing kit. These applications can display the objects and motor action on a standard PC monitor that can be set for both mono and stereo viewing.
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The CyberGrasp (see Haptics Movie on CD) is an exoskeletal device that fits over a 22 DOF CyberGlove, providing force feedback. The CyberGrasp is used in conjunction with a tracker to measure the position and orientation of the hand in three-dimensional space. Fine and gross motor hand activities can be trained using the CyberGrasp using both a standard PC monitor (both for mono or stereo viewing) and within an immersive head mounted display (HMD). We intend to use this device as the interface for a series of hand reaching and grasping tasks with functional objects of various shapes and sizes. The tasks include reaching for a vessel of water and pouring it into a glass, placing books on appropriate shelves, and reaching for a child’s hand to help guide her down a small set of stairs.
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This application will use vibrating mechanisms on the palm of the hand to simulate contact/collision with moving objects in a series of game based environments designed to exercise gross arm, shoulder and torso movement. Patients can view their hand actions within the scenarios via an HMD for full immersion and from both projection displays and PC monitors. The scenarios will allow the patient to participate in virtual handball, play goalie in a virtual soccer game, and reach through a maze of objects that requires patients to only make contact with targets and to avoid very fragile glass objects.
Related Presentations and Publications by:
Dr. Rizzo
Dr. McLaughlin
The Center is funded as part of the National Institutes of Health Roadmap Initiative, grant number P20 RR20700-01. NIH Program Administrator: Dr. Greg Faber
