PC-based telerehabilitation system with force feedback

A PC-based orthopedic rehabilitation system was developed for use at home, while allowing for remote monitoring from the clinic. The home rehabilitation station has a Pentium II PC with graphics accelerator, Polhemus tracker, and a novel Multipurpose Haptic Control Interface with its own Pentium board. This interface is used to sample patient's hand positions and to provide resistive forces using the Rutgers Master II (RMII) glove. A library of virtual rehabilitation routines was developed using WorldToolKit software. At the present time, it consists of two physical therapy exercises (DigiKey and Ball) and two functional rehabilitation exercises (Peg Board test and Ball game). All VR exercises allow automatic and transparent patient data collection into an Oracle database. A remote Pentium II PC is connected with the home-based PC over the Internet and an additional videoconferencing connection. The remote computer running Oracle server is used to maintain the patient database, monitor progress and change exercise level of difficulty. This allows for timely patient progress monitoring and repeat evaluations over time from the Clinic. The system will soon start clinical trails at Stanford Medical School, with progress being monitored remotely from Rutgers University. Other rehabilitation haptic interfaces under development include devices for elbow, and knee rehabilitation connected to the Multipurpose Haptic Control Interface.