Virtual reality for physiotherapy : Functional reach training for automating walking patterns

Samenvatting

Walking is something that most of us do every day. From the moment we set our first steps we perfect this skill until it eventually becomes an automatic walking pattern. However, due to injury, illness, or disease, someone might lose control over this automated task. When this happens, physical therapy is often used to help restore a patient’s use of muscles and train a new automatic walking pattern. An important element is to reduce postural sway and increase functional reach. In some cases, this includes using a Body Weight Support system which allows patients to experience walking at an early stage of their rehabilitation. However, this also confines them to a predefined area, away from everyday situations. As continuing their rehabilitation throughout everyday life can be challenging, being able to bring these everyday situations into the rehabilitation therapy might therefore aid their transition. By transferring all of this into a virtual reality environment, it allows a therapist to do exactly that. Moreover, it allows for usage data to be collected, analyzed, and presented to provide meaningful insights. In the project ‘Virtual Reality for Rehabilitation’ we focus on the question how new technologies can facilitate natural interaction in a virtual reality environment and support, optimize and maybe even replace existing rehabilitation processes. For this we are developing a system that support both patients and therapist. A Conference object of Supporting Health by Technology 2021 at Enschede, The Netherlands.