AR-REHAB: An Augmented Reality Framework for Poststroke-Patient Rehabilitation

This paper proposes a novel approach based on augmented-reality (AR) technologies that can increase a stroke-patient's involvement in the rehabilitation process. The approach takes advantage of virtual-reality technologies and provides natural-force interaction with the daily environment by adopting a tangible-object concept. In our framework, the patient manipulates during the treatment session a tangible object that is tracked to measure her/his performance without the direct supervision of an occupational therapist. We called this framework AR-based REHABilitation. In this paper, we introduce the core architecture of the framework and its subsystems that provide more convenience to patients and therapists. We also present two exercises, a shelf exercise and a cup exercise, as examples and perform preliminary usability study. In addition, we introduce assessment measurements such as task-completion time, compactness of task, and speed of hand movement by capturing the patients' hand movements with the tangible object.