Design and Study of a Smart Cup for Monitoring the Arm and Hand Activity of Stroke Patients

Abstract

This paper presents a new platform to monitor the arm and hand activity of stroke patients during rehabilitation exercises in the hospital and at home during their daily living activities. The platform provides relevant data to the therapist in order to assess the patients physical state and adapt the rehabilitation program if necessary. The platform consists of a self-contained smart cup that can be used to perform exercises that are similar to everyday tasks such as drinking. The first smart cup prototype, the design of which was based on interviews regarding the needs of therapists, contains various sensors that collect information about its orientation, the liquid level, its position compared to a reference target and tremors. The prototype also includes audio and visual displays that provide feedback to patients about their movements. Two studies were carried out in conjunction with healthcare professionals and patients. The first study focused on collecting feedback from healthcare professionals to assess the functionalities of the cup and to improve the prototype. Based on this paper, we designed an improved prototype and created a visualization tool for therapists. Finally, we carried out a preliminary study involving nine patients who had experienced an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke in the previous 24 months. This preliminary study focused on assessing the usability and acceptability of the cup to the patients. The results showed that the cup was very well accepted by eight of the nine patients in monitoring their activity within a rehabilitation center or at home. Moreover, these eight patients had almost no concerns about the design of the cup and its usability.

Characteristics and Applications of Technology-Aided Hand Functional Assessment: A Systematic Review

“…The 60% of the systems provide feedback during the assessment procedures via visual [ 22 , 27 , 28 , 31 , 37 , 38 , 40 ], acoustic [ 27 , 28 , 37 ], or haptic [ 26 ] feedback, or by adopting virtual reality technology to retrieve the online kinematic rendering of hand activity [ 23 , 26 , 36 , 39 , 42 , 44 ]. Systems with TRL ≤ 4 ( n = 7) resulted mainly adopted in laboratory setting, while those with TRL > 5 resulted majorly involved in clinical environments ( n = 12).…”

“…Systems with TRL ≤ 4 ( n = 7) resulted mainly adopted in laboratory setting, while those with TRL > 5 resulted majorly involved in clinical environments ( n = 12). Higher TRL were used in home settings (TRL = 6 [ 22 ]; TRL7 = [ 28 , 44 ]; TRL9 = [ 43 ]). The 78% of the functional evaluations aimed to investigate the execution of tasks in a controlled environment, while 5 out of the 23 papers [ 22 , 25 , 28 , 29 , 30 ] studied the performance of functional tasks/ADLs in free-living conditions.…”

“…Higher TRL were used in home settings (TRL = 6 [ 22 ]; TRL7 = [ 28 , 44 ]; TRL9 = [ 43 ]). The 78% of the functional evaluations aimed to investigate the execution of tasks in a controlled environment, while 5 out of the 23 papers [ 22 , 25 , 28 , 29 , 30 ] studied the performance of functional tasks/ADLs in free-living conditions. The Table A1 ( Appendix A ) reports the different system metrics labelled in relation to the original articles.…”

“…On the other hand, kinetic analysis showed to be fundamental to address significant information about “muscle power functions” and “fine hand use” domains through the evaluation of basic tasks in neurological diseases which impairments cause severe motor disability [ 27 , 30 , 40 , 42 ]. Some authors highlighted the needs to develop systems equipped by more than one sensor, to track both kinematic and kinetic data, thus obtaining metrics that express more detailed outcomes about hand function [ 24 , 26 , 28 , 36 ]. Remarkably, Schwarz et al [ 24 ] combined complete kinematic motion analysis and interaction force measurements at the fingertip, giving relevant information about all domains of hand functioning in stroke subjects.…”

Determining Factors that Influence Adoption of New Post-Stroke Sensorimotor Rehabilitation Devices in the USA

“…These technologies typically focus on increasing experience-dependent neuroplasticity and restoring function [6], [7]. Some examples include: virtual reality based rehabilitation games to increase repetitions of therapeutic movements to restore function [8], [9], wearable sensory stimulation to increase cortical activation during therapy [10], wearable devices that facilitate joint movements [11], [12], biofeedback [13], smart objects [14,15], and vibratory cuing devices to remind stroke survivors to move their affected upper extremities more frequently [16], [17]. Many of these restorative rehabilitation devices have shown efficacy in enhancing motor outcomes of stroke survivors [18], [19], [20].…”