A Sensorized Glove and Ball for Monitoring Hand Rehabilitation Therapy in Stroke Patients

Stroke is the principal cause of adult disabilities in India and the third leading cause of death worldwide. Hemiparesis/ Hemiplegia is the common outcome of stroke, and as a result the survivor loses the control of skills that are necessary for activities of daily living (ADL). Planning of a rehabilitation treatment to regain the skills that the patient has lost is necessary to quantify the hand movements that he/she is able to perform. For the same, a sensorized glove has been designed using flex sensors, optical linear encoder (OLE) and a 3-axis accelerometer to measure finger flexion, wrist flexion/extension and forearm movement. A sensorized ball has also been devised to exercise the hand and is used to measure the grasp force. The complete system hardware and test software have been assembled and tested on two healthy individuals. The proposed system is able to detect finger flexion, forearm movement and grasp force. The user software has to be developed in future.