Motor rehabilitation training after stroke using haptic handwriting and games

Abstract

Rehabilitation training is crucial for stroke recovery and has to be performed on a daily basis. In order to motivate the stroke patients to practice motor trainings and improve rehabilitation process, haptic handwriting and Ten Pin Bowling game with Novint Falcon device are proposed as stroke rehabilitation tools. Ten Pin Bowling game is a virtual reality training which is intended to create a simulated environment for the retraining of motor function. Haptic handwriting can improve motor skill, postural stability and control, hand eye coordination of stroke patients. Some haptic applications for stroke rehabilitation trainings have been used to clinical experiments in Chinese hospitals. Furthermore, motor rehabilitation using haptic applications is encouraging and motivating, and the effectiveness of the proposed motor training method is confirmed via experiments.