A Telehealth System for Managing Faulty Neck Posture Using Sensors of Standalone Wearables

We are concerned with the development of a telehealth system for the rehabilitation of neck disorders, specifically faulty neck posture. This is a principal source of neck pain (NP), which is a widespread musculoskeletal disorder that has significant societal and economic implications. We are particularly interested in harnessing the potential of virtual reality-based training, which is highlighted by a growing body of research on physical therapy, in realizing an engaging medium for exercise. Hence, it enhances patients' commitment and adherence to sustained training. This immersive training is aimed to be delivered through a system that is data-focused, userfriendly, engaging, and lends itself well to tele-health settings. For maintaining a minimal system structure, we capitalize on the embedded sensors of standalone virtual reality (VR) headsets for measuring performance data before encrypting and uploading it to a dedicated cloud service. In this study, we present and discuss a framework for designing and developing a VR-based system for delivering exercises targeting FNP. We conclude this research by discussing the results of a usability study, conducted on twenty-one symptomatic and asymptomatic undergraduate engineering students, in which the developed system achieved a high usability score. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to address neck disorders using a tele-health system that adopts solely embedded sensors of standalone VR wearables¹.