Impact of Sensor Sensitivity in Assistive Environment

Advances in motion detection, tracking, and classification have made available many applications in telerehabilition. Monitoring of the elderlies and physically impaired, sports medicine, and physical therapy, are some of the active research areas in telerehabilition. In order to gain acceptance by the general public, a telerehabilition system should have high accuracy in tracking movements and be low in cost. This work investigates the suitability of Leap Motion, a computer input device, for telerehabilition purpose. Its accuracy and tracking reliability are compared to that of Nintendo's Wii Remote Controller (Wiimote) that was studies in our prior work. Wiimote can be used as a handheld device for patients to perform repetitive motions in physical therapy sessions in an autonomous remote setting. The Leap Motion, on the other hand, seems to fit physiotherapy sessions that require free motion without any props. Patients can use such an instructional system at home without the effort and time incurred with visiting a medical office. At the same time, the public health care system also benefits from such devices due to reduced cost and broader delivery of programs.