Evaluation of Usefulness of the Elinor Console for Home-Based Stroke Rehabilitation

Abstract

Virtual rehabilitation has emerged as a promising tool over the last decade. However the field is diverse and there is no unified understanding of the concept and in which situations it should be used. The most common usage context is a rehabilitation clinic but there is an urge to offer motivating virtual rehabilitation to be used in the homes of patients. The main drive for using such systems is to enhance motivation by introducing an interesting challenge and an element of fun. This paper describes and evaluates the feasibility of Elinor, a game-based system for stroke rehabilitation in the home. The Elinor prototype has been positively evaluated with respect to its usability, user acceptance and motivational factors. This paper reports on the initial findings concerning the rehabilitation effect of Elinor. No persons suffered any serious adverse effects from training. We had positive results with respect to the assessment of motor and process skills (AMPS). Even though these improvements were not significant they are still positive enough to motivate future work. The self-reported improvements in the motor activity logs (MAL) also motivate future work.