The design of a haptic exercise for post-stroke arm rehabilitation

Abstract

www.idc.ul.ie In this paper we present an application based on an immersive workbench and a haptic device, designed to motivate stroke patients in their rehabilitation of their arm. The work presented in this paper is the result of a six-month project, based on evaluation with stroke patients and on informal interviews with medical doctors, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Our application called “The Labyrinth ” has been used for studies with stroke patients and we have seen that arm rehabilitation using Virtual Environments and haptics can be very encouraging and motivating. These factors are crucial to improve the rehabilitation process. 1.