Finger Motor Function Evaluation Device for Hemiplegia Patients at Home

Hemiplegia causes a severe paralysis on half of the body. Hand motor function is one of the most severely damaged places. Therefore, it should be important to continuously perform self-rehabilitation after a patient has finished intensive rehabilitation at a hospital and returned to home. However, the evaluation of hand motor function is difficult since it involves not only a simple movement of a finger but also dexterous movements by the coordination of multiple fingers. To this end, we have developed a small and light automated finger pressure evaluation device, which has five load cells allocated as a natural pinching and grasping posture. The device can measure both the degree of normality of a single finger movement and dexterity by a combination of fingers. By using it, a patient can know the condition of the disease and daily achievements of self-rehabilitation at home. We tested the measurement of grasp and pinch actions. The measured finger pressures showed explicit difference between these two motions.