The majority of stroke patients experience deficits in motoric functions, especially in gait and mobility. They need rehabilitation to regain walking independence, which is a major goal of rehabilitation after stroke. To document and assess the rehabilitation progress, instrumented motion analysis and clinical assessments are commonly used. In a clinical pilot study the applicability of an instrumented insole system in stroke rehabilitation is evaluated. Motion parameter of 35 stroke patients were gathered with the system while completing 90 s level walking and Timed Up & Go test at the beginning and end of four weeks inpatient rehabilitation. For level walking the motion parameter were gathered with the clinical reference system simultaneously. The mean stride time for level walking decreased from 1.20 s to 1.16 s (clinical system), or from 1.19 s to 1.12 s (insole system), respectively. Focusing on individual comparison of each patient's progress, 9 gait parameters are extracted for level walking, 6 sub-phases of Timed Up & Go test are detected and analyzed, as well as progress of Center of Pressure in the sub-phases is examined. Although the overall data show wide distribution, the system proofed to be applicable in clinical stroke rehabilitation routine. As the system is location-independent, and has the advantage of assessing additional parameters of the Timed Up & Go test, it is additionally suitable for integration in a tele-or home rehabilitation system.

Due to the demographic change, the need of rehabilitation is rising. Home-based rehabilitation can lower the fnancial burden, support reintegration into daily (work-)life and increase motivation as well as compliance of patients. Several device-supported approaches for rehabilitation were investigated in the research project REHABitation. An insole-based live-feedback system to support patients performing partial weight bearing was developed and tested in a clinical pilot study. Rehabilitative games using commercial gaming control systems like the Microsoft Kinect and the Nintendo Wii Balance Board were developed for range-of-motion and balance training, respectively. For these serious games, usability was tested with the System Usability Scale questionnaire. The comparability of range-of-motion measurements of shoulder movements conducted with inertial measurement units and an optical motion capture system was elaborated. Results fo the clinical study suggest that the patients' compliance with partial weight bearing load restriction was improved with the use of the live-feedback system developed. The use of Wii and Kinect solutions is possible and helps to increase compliance of patients due to high system usability scale scores and positive feedback. The use of intertial measurement units for the detection of motion and its characteristics is highly depending on the used type of system and the intended time span of use. All these approaches were interconnected with diagnosis, corresponding exercises/assessments and tools in the web-based Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for proft or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the frst page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s).

Summary Background: Preservation of mobility in conjunction with an independent life style is one of the major goals of rehabilitation after stroke. Objectives: The Rehab@Home framework shall support the continuation of rehabilitation at home. Methods: The framework consists of instrumented insoles, connected wirelessly to a 3G ready tablet PC, a server, and a web-interface for medical experts. The rehabilitation progress is estimated via automated analysis of movement data from standardized assessment tests which are designed according to the needs of stroke patients and executed via the tablet PC application. Results: The Rehab@Home framework’s implementation is finished and ready for the field trial (at five patients’ homes). Initial testing of the automated evaluation of the standardized mobility tests shows reproducible results. Conclusions: Therefore it is assumed that the Rehab@Home framework is applicable as monitoring tool for the gait rehabilitation progress in stroke patients.

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