ABSTRACT OF THE STUDY
Moving in this era of technological breakthroughs makes
anything possible. Science and technology has influenced – in the sense of
realistic exaggeration – 99% of the world. It has overreached in a person’s
lifestyle.
This
study aims to see the effects of software technology, specifically, Kinect, on
active rehabilitation. And also, how this new form of rehabilitation conforms
to the traditional way of “real sports” rehabilitation.
REHABILITATION
Rehabilitation is a
treatment or treatments designed to facilitate the process of recovery from
injury, illness or disease to as normal a condition as possible. Rehabilitation
means to restore some or eventually all of the patient’s physical, sensory and
mental capabilities that were lost due to injury, illness or disease.
Given
the series of disabilities at a period of time, this process of rehabilitation
has been growing; in the sense, technological breakthroughs enter the field for
better efficient process.
ACTIVE REHABILITATION
Active rehabilitation is a rehabilitation program where
exercise and education are the foundations for therapy. Assessments on baseline
strength and flexibility are taken for therapists to design a specific program
specifically for you. Such programs may include core strengthening, postural
re-education, functional training, cardiovascular endurance and flexibility.
Rehabilitation is constant work done at home and with re-assessment visits to
your therapist.
SPORTS ON ACTIVE REHABILITATION
Sports have been greatly known to be a source of career
or recreation. Although, over the years, sports have been accredited to be a
source of so many health benefits and considered as therapy.
Some sports workouts that have been loud enough for
therapy are swimming, jogging, tennis,
Swimming
Swimming is undeniably
an all-over sport because nearly your whole body experiences movement –
physically and internally. It keeps your heart rate up, builds endurance,
muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness. It helps maintain a healthy weight,
heart and lungs. It has been loudly known also as an effective therapy for
scoliosis.
Jogging,
Running & Walking
Jogging
is a popular form of physical activity and a form of aerobic exercise. Regular
jog, run and walk activities help strengthen bones and muscles, improve cardiovascular
fitness and maintain a healthy weight.
Tennis
Tennis is a non-impact sport and has been proven to be a
fun and great workout. It increases aerobic capacity, lowers resting heart rate
and blood pressure, improves metabolic function, increase bone density, lower
body fat, improve muscle tone, strength and flexibility and increases reaction
time. Also, studies show that it is effective in reducing stress.
THE STUDY
Here is a short video
showing how the new developed system for rehabilitation works.
The
management of heart failure is the classic example the success of telemedicine.
Hospital systems and clinics throughout the world have adopted solutions to
measure daily weights and vital signs from patients. They have assembled teams
to monitor the data and to communicate with the patients when trends suggest
decompensation. Emergency rooms visits are prevented and healthcare costs are
reduced.
The use of telemedicine for heart failure is a great step in the right direction, but there is definitely room for improvement. The problem with most systems is that their philosophy revolves around doctors or nurses siphoning data from patients and returning directives. This approach does not promote patient self-efficacy and is costly because of the heavy reliance on professionals to interpret data and make decisions. It helps to keep patients stable, but it does not motivate them to improve their condition.
The Esoma Exercise System aims to shift cardiac rehabilitation to a patient-centered approach. Patients will play games powered by Microsoft Kinect and computer vision algorithms that recognize the execution of rehab exercises.
Patients will wear physiological sensors while playing the games that monitor heart rate, blood oxygenation, etc. Rich feedback about their progress and improvement in physiological state will be embedded in the game to motivate self-efficacy. There will still be clinicians on the other side of the server, but they will act more as coaches that help patients make decisions for themselves based on the data. The system is being built as a CollaboRhythm plug-in so that it can benefit from the powerful tools for data visualization, communication, and social support.
Ryan Orendorff from Tufts has already built a prototype of Esoma that tracks typical cardiac rehabilitation exercises for patients with relatively poor reserve. He is developing algorithms that allow the system to be taught new exercise through example. The system will then be able to track those trained exercises for any patient. The next steps will be to incorporate the algorithms into a game, to incorporate the physiological sensors, and to integrate with CollaboRhythm.
KINECT
Kinect is a software
technology under motion sensing input devices invented by Microsoft Xbox. It
enables users to control and interact with their console without the need for a
game controller, rather through using gestures and spoken commands. Kinect is
on its eight generation now.
How does Kinect work?
Kinect is a combination
of hardware and software contained within a sensor accessory The sensor is a
flat black box that is on a small platform, placed on a plane surface.
The Kinect Hardware:
- The color VGA video camera – used for facial recognition and other detection features.
- Depth sensor – An infrared projector and a monochrome complimentary metal-oxide semi-conductor sensor work together to see objects in 3-D
- Multi-array microphone – Isolates voices of the players from room noise. This allows the player to be a few feet away from the microphone and still use the controls.
The video above shows the innovative applications of KINECT technology in active rehabilitation and therapy of child cancer patients.
CONCLUSION
Sports therapy and rehabilitation is
basically concerned with musculoskeletal conditions that arise from physical
activities and not internal health disorders. Given that Kinect technology
conforms to rehabilitate the latter – internal health disorders (and maybe
possibly also physical injuries but not really proven in this study, having a
scope that is short term research only) – Kinect doesn't overtake the essence
of sports therapy so much. In fact, Kinect technology is even so less strenuous
than physical sports therapy.
Studies show that the development of
Kinect in the field of active rehabilitation has been efficient, effective and
entertaining. It enables the patients to experience therapy in a less difficult
manner and at the same time the can undergo therapy in the active presence of
their family.
REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/microsoft-kinect2.htm
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Rehabilitation
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/sports_therapist_job_description.htm
http://www.ptworks.ca/services/rehab.php
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Swimming
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Tennis?open
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Running_and_jogging?open
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