HCI in action : examining the use of optoelectronic devices for hand and wrist rehabilitation in, and away from the clinic

Abstract

This work examines the use of optoelectronic devices to assist hand and wrist rehabilitation programmes which generally require the patients to perform out of clinic exercises. Rehabilitation systems are generally adopted for the in clinic environment to facilitate the rehabilitation process. This dissertation proposes a low-cost solution which can be used by patients and physiotherapists as part of the rehabilitation programme both in and out of the clinic. Furthermore, the system proposed as a solution to the research problem aims at encouraging patient compliance and adherence to home based exercises by keeping the patients themselves motivated. A user centered approach and an iterative prototyping methodology is adopted during the development of this solution, which was evaluated by the stakeholders of the system. Primarily, insight on the problem domain was gathered from the outcome of the interviews held with physiotherapists. Information on current practices and the issues encountered in the field of rehabilitation is presented. Moreover, existing rehabilitation systems that make use of HCI techniques are reviewed while optoelectronic motion tracking devices and their challenges are examined, together with literature on usability, user experience and user centered design. The outcome of this study proposes a solution that addresses the issues extracted during the analysis of the research problem. Furthermore, this study shows that a rehabilitation solution utilizing HCI techniques designed for the health sector can provide benefits for the health professionals and most importantly for the patients.