A Smart Parametric 3D Printing Hand Assistive Device With a Practical Physically Intervention Feedback Based on the Embedded IMU Sensor

Assistive devices are one of the crucial medical instruments for rehabilitation. Customized designs are required to match the geometry and dimensions of the affected sites of human bodies. The existing practice of assistive device development remains mostly a manual process, in which an experienced physiotherapist employs simple two-dimensional measurements and visual estimation to handcraft each device. The resulting devices not only vary substantially in fit to wearers, but also are not compatible to modern developmental technologies such as three-dimensional (3D) printing. This study incorporated substantial quantities of anthropometric data to construct a parametric 3D hand model. This study employed a customized assistive device - splint for carpal tunnel syndrome as a target object for testing the feasibility of the proposed method and verified the practicability through 3D printing implementation. Moreover, a wearable device embedded with inertial measurement unit sensor and vibration module will be integrated into the customized assistive device to offer a smart way for rehabilitation. With the help of this developed wearable device, continuously tracking user’s activity wirelessly and provide the real-time physically intervention feedback of vibration module based on back-end monitoring system platform. This new concept by integrating customized design and the IMU sensor and vibration module open a new window for the field of customized assistive device and improve its practical values.