Development of the Balance Tele-Rehabilitation System with Virtual Reality and Functional Electrical Stimulation

Our team has developed a balance rehabilitation system that has been equipped with a force plate and electrical stimulators to help the hemiplegic patients prevent from severity falls that result in terrible damages. It has been proved that the hemiplegic patients can improve their stance stability after the balance rehabilitation. Moreover, balance rehabilitation could exactly improve their abilities for executing the activities of daily life. However, the mobility of the hemiplegic patients limited the locations applied for further balance rehabilitation programs. Therefore, our team proposes the development of the balance tele-rehabilitation system with virtual reality and FES. This system will provide the patients who are suffering from standing balance problems and are not capable of moving to hospitals frequently the convenient balance rehabilitation programs at home while the development finishes. In order to avoid some switching problems that prevent FES from further practical uses, a specific feedback-controlled functional electrical stimulator will be developed, based on the center of pressure measured by accelerometers. This proposed system will be able to provide (1) The user-friendly and low-cost apparatus for household use: The low-cost apparatus equipped with the compact and light accelerometers which are easy to don and doff provides the more familiar balance rehabilitation programs for household use. (2) The more entertaining virtual reality games: The customized virtual reality rehabilitation game can provide simple and clear instructions and the entertaining training. (3) The access for long-term observations in tele-rehabilitation The quantified data recorded by the digital electronic technology for long-term observations in tele-rehabilitation so that the researchers are able to analyze it in an objective way. Our research team includes current professional medical specialists, biomedical and electrical engineering professionals, and information science expert. In the 1st year (in process), we have successfully measured the variability of the center of pressure of several normal subjects by using accelerometers and have been progressing the advanced clinical trials smoothly. Goals in 2nd year (1) The electro-physiologic studies of recruiting the lower limb muscle groups for keeping dynamic and static standing balance. (2) Design and implement the portable controlled-feedback functional stimulator and feedback control strategy. (3) Develop the target-guided virtual reality rehabilitation game for simple and clear instructions and the entertaining training. (4) Integrate the controlled-feedback FES and the target-guided VR game with the proposed system (5) The proposed system in clinical trials. (6) Publish some journal papers. Goals in 3rd year (1) Build up a data server in the central lab. (2) Port the control strategy and virtual reality game to the scheduled embedded system for further miniaturization and portability. (3) Apply the modified proposed system in clinical trials. (4) Develop more virtual reality games for increasing the home entertainment performance and hooking the patients. (5) Publish some journal papers