Gamified 3D orthopaedic rehabilitation using low cost and portable inertial sensors

This work introduces an innovative gamified 3D rehabilitation application intended for patients that have undergone Total Knee Replacement surgery, in collaboration with the General Hospital in Chania, Crete, Greece. The application uses a single custom-made, light, portable and low-cost sensor node consisting of an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) attached on a lower limb in order to capture its orientation in space in real-time, while the patient is completing a physiotherapy protocol. The aim is to increase patient engagement during physiotherapy by motivating the user to participate in a serious game. The proposed sensor node attached on the lower limb drives a graphical image of the patient's limb motion as part of a 3D computer graphics scene displayed on a tablet or phone. It then classifies the exercise performed during physiotherapy as accurately performed or not and increases patient compliance via a reward system. Our goal is to reduce the need for the physical presence of a physiotherapist by aiding the efficient performance of exercise at any location, e.g. indoors and outdoors by just utilizing a light sensor and an Android device. A novel algorithm is proposed that automatically classifies an exercise in real-time. It is shown that patient engagement is enhanced when dynamically connected with a gamified app.