The proposed rehabilitations system is going to be for the upper and lower limbs practising. Few games have been designed for various rehabilitations purposes such as practicing hands, arms and legs. The proposed rehabilitation system consists of two different applications, the first one is for the patients to practice and the second one is for the therapists to keep them updated with the progress and improvement of their patients. Two wearable devices have been designed, the first one is for the hand practising and the second one is for the legs training.
Stroke leads to intense physical disability in the human body, it causes some deficits due to the horrific events that resulted in wars and other problems in our world. Very often stroke survivors suffer from a permanent partial disability that restricts the movement of the hand, arm, and leg. We know that the rehabilitation should be at an earlier stage of the injury to recover the infected parts of the human body.
The key success of the stroke recovery is the patient's motivation, it would be a challenge to recover if the patient is not motivated and not practising. In this project, we are focusing on finding the best ways to motivate stroke patients to do rehabilitation. Serious games have been involved in this area as it is considered as enjoyable and motivated for all people. Games are very popular, and most people enjoy gaming, especially with the development of the modern technologies which made it very easy to interact with games.
Games are getting involved in many different areas like in the military, health care, entertainments, education, and government. In this project, the author will implement a new method to motivate stroke survivors to do their rehabilitation through practicing on a game which will be based on a wearable device to control the game in order to encourage stroke survivors to recover the disabled part of their body.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
Introduction
How to keep Stroke Patients Motivated:
The Proposed System
Aims & Objectives
Chapter 2 Literature Review
Introduction
Stroke Definition & Causes
Intensity and modality of rehabilitation changed according to phase of stroke:
Physiotherapy & stroke
Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT)
Stroke Recovery and Outcomes
Background (Related Work)
Games in Healthcare
Serious Games for Rehabilitation
The Proposed System Overview
Chapter 3 Methodology
Introduction
The approach of Agile
The Proposed System Development process
Requirement Elicitation
Functional requirements
System Analysis and Design
Database Design and Development
System Implementation
System Testing
System Evaluation
Chapter 4 Requirements Engineering
Introduction
Elicitation Activities
Requirements specification
Problem Domain and solutions
Functional Requirements
Performance Requirements (non-functional requirements)
Speed
Capacity
Reliability
Usability
Security
Commercial Constraints
Chapter 5 System Analysis & Design
Introduction
Textual Analysis
Significant Events Analysis
Classes Collaborations and Responsibilities
System User Cases Diagram
Disability Level Assessment Use Case
Therapist System User Case
Patients System User Case
Unified Modelling Language (UML)
Patient Rehabilitation System Use Case.
Therapist Tracking System
Chapter 6 System Design & Development
Introduction
System architectural Design
The wearable device design architecture
Sensor Board Design Architecture
The games environment architecture
User Interface Design
System Wireframes
Games engine environment wireframes
Therapist Application wireframes
The required activities for the hand/ leg on the wearable device
System Mock-Ups
Video Games Mock-ups
Therapist Application Mock-ups:
Database design
Relationships
Chapter 7 System Implementation
Introduction
Development Programming Languages
Why Python
Why Java
Why C & C++ of Arduino
Setting Up the Server
Set Up a Standalone Network
Set Up the Connection Between the Wearable device and the Server.
Network Connection
Services
Setup the web server.
MySQL Server Installation.
Http Request
Processing the Http Request by the Web Server.
Hardware Design and Implementation
Hardware tools
Circuit Design
Hand Wearable Circuit
Leg Wearable Circuit.
The software behind the designed hardware.
Game Engine Development.
Video Games Design Architecture
Space War Shoot Game.
Graphics Design.
Snake and Bird Jumping Games
Select a game window
Therapist Application (Patient’s Tracking App).
Libraries
The Developed Classes
Chapter 8 System Testing
Introduction
8.2. Unit Test & Pytest.
Video Games Testing:
Therapist Application Unit Testing
Black-Box Testing
Chapter 9 System Evaluation
Introduction
System Usability Evaluation
Users Findings Analysis
Rehabilitation System Cost
Chapter 10 Conclusion & Future Work
Conclusion
Future Work
Project Goals and Thematic Areas
The primary goal of this project is to create an effective and engaging rehabilitation system for stroke survivors suffering from upper and lower limb disabilities. By integrating Internet of Things (IoT) technologies with serious gaming, the project aims to increase patient motivation to perform repetitive rehabilitation exercises at home, while providing therapists with real-time tracking of their patients' progress and health metrics.
- Design of wearable IoT devices (hand and leg) using Arduino for motion sensing.
- Development of a serious game engine environment to make physical therapy enjoyable.
- Implementation of a server-based tracking application for therapists using Java.
- Integration of real-time health monitoring, specifically measuring patient heart rate.
- Development of a database-driven system to store and analyze rehabilitation progress.
Excerpt from the Book
Serious Games for Rehabilitation
Games have been used for rehabilitation featuring physical therapy, human behaviours changes, biofeedback, epidemiology, cognitive exercises, training, health education and nutrition [27].
Video games are used in many fields. Some people are addicted to games especially the children. Therefore, in [28] a new serious game has been developed to help the disabled children to practice mathematics. The serious game called MathBharata, the aim of this game was to motivate the disabled children to study mathematics. MathBharata is a serious quiz game where children can try to answer multiple choice questions with increasing difficulty. It contains various aspects to learn math. Over 85 students have tested MathBharata [28]. The test was in regular schools and disabled schools. The overall presenting was 29.4% of students were “strongly agree” and 70.9% were just “agree”.
Summary of Chapters
Chapter 1 Introduction: Provides an overview of the stroke disability problem and introduces the project's aim to use serious games as a motivational tool for home-based rehabilitation.
Chapter 2 Literature Review: Reviews existing literature on stroke, physical therapy techniques such as CIMT, and current uses of serious games in healthcare and rehabilitation.
Chapter 3 Methodology: Explains the choice of the Agile development methodology and describes the processes used for requirement elicitation, system analysis, and implementation.
Chapter 4 Requirements Engineering: Details the elicitation of functional and non-functional requirements needed to build the rehabilitation system.
Chapter 5 System Analysis & Design: Focuses on the architectural analysis, textual analysis of system classes, and the development of UML diagrams for both patient and therapist applications.
Chapter 6 System Design & Development: Describes the hardware design of the wearable devices and the architectural design of the game environment, including wireframes and mock-ups.
Chapter 7 System Implementation: Details the technical implementation, including the choice of programming languages like Python and Java, database setup, and circuit design.
Chapter 8 System Testing: Discusses the testing strategies employed, including unit testing (pytest/JUnit) and black-box testing, to ensure system reliability.
Chapter 9 System Evaluation: Presents the usability evaluation, including survey findings from potential users and an analysis of the system's cost-effectiveness.
Chapter 10 Conclusion & Future Work: Summarizes the project achievements and suggests future enhancements such as incorporating EEG brain-computer interfaces.
Keywords
Stroke Rehabilitation, Serious Games, Wearable Devices, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, IoT, Physical Therapy, Patient Motivation, Agile Methodology, Human-Computer Interaction, Java, Python, Motion Sensing, Healthcare Technology, Remote Patient Monitoring.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core purpose of this research project?
The project aims to develop an affordable, home-based rehabilitation system that uses serious video games controlled by wearable IoT devices to motivate stroke survivors to perform essential physical therapy exercises.
What are the primary technical components involved?
The system utilizes Arduino-based wearable devices with sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, flex sensor, heart rate sensor) to track movements, a Raspberry Pi server to run games, and a Java-based desktop application for therapist monitoring.
What is the main research question or objective?
The primary objective is to find effective ways to motivate stroke patients to adhere to their rehabilitation routine outside of clinical settings by gamifying the recovery process.
What scientific methodologies were applied?
The project followed an Agile development methodology, incorporating requirement elicitation, system analysis using UML, and rigorous testing strategies like pytest and JUnit to validate software and hardware performance.
What does the main body of the work cover?
The main body details the entire lifecycle of the system: from literature review and requirements engineering to system design, implementation of hardware circuits and software algorithms, and final system evaluation.
Which keywords characterize this system?
Key terms include Stroke Rehabilitation, Serious Games, Wearable Devices, IoT, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Patient Motivation, and Remote Patient Monitoring.
How do patients control the games?
Patients control the games through their physical movements. The wearable device detects limb or finger rotations and translates these into game inputs, encouraging the specific physical actions required for rehabilitation.
How does the system ensure therapist oversight?
A dedicated therapist application allows clinicians to remotely track a patient's progress, monitor their heart rate during sessions, set game difficulty levels, and adjust rehabilitation goals based on stored database metrics.
What role does data play in this system?
Data acts as the bridge between the patient and the therapist. Movements and heart rate are captured by sensors, processed via the server, and stored in a MySQL database, which then provides progress visualizations like bar and line charts for the therapist.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Ali Al-Mahmood (Autor:in), Michael Opoku Agyeman (Autor:in), 2019, Home Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients. Designing Games Using Arduino and Raspberry Pi, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/493629
