Glove-based systems for medical applications: review of recent advancements

Abstract

Human hand motion analysis is attracting researchers in the areas of neuroscience, biomedical engineering, robotics, human-machines interfaces (HMI), humancomputer interaction (HCI), and artificial intelligence (AI). Among the others, the fields of medical rehabilitation and physiological assessments are suggesting high impact applications for wearable sensing systems. Glove-based systems are one of the most significant devices in assessing quantities related to hand movements. This paper provides updated survey among the main glove solutions proposed in literature for hand rehabilitation. Then, the process for designing glove-based systems is defined, by including all relevant design issues for researchers and makers. The main goal of the paper is to describe the basics of glove-based systems and to outline their potentialities and limitations. At the same time, roadmap to design and prototype the next generation of these devices is defined, according to the results of previous experiences in the scientific community.

Reliability and Validity of Clinically Accessible Smart Glove Technologies to Measure Joint Range of Motion

“…However, IMUs can be affected by accumulated errors and other environmental factors [ 7 ]. Other factors such as cost, size, measurement function ability, and physical structure can all play a part into the selection of sensors for a wearable device [ 2 ]. Furthermore, researchers and clinicians seek the next generation wireless smart glove but are often overcome by issues relating to the linearity of sensors [ 2 , 14 ].…”

“…Other factors such as cost, size, measurement function ability, and physical structure can all play a part into the selection of sensors for a wearable device [ 2 ]. Furthermore, researchers and clinicians seek the next generation wireless smart glove but are often overcome by issues relating to the linearity of sensors [ 2 , 14 ]. Two important testing strategies for linearity are to assess the accuracy and to assess repeatability of a sensor during angular movement [ 3 ].…”

“…In medical applications, such as rehabilitation and hand function assessment, capturing hand kinematics is necessary [ 1 ]. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and other neurological conditions have a detrimental effect on the quality of life of the affected people [ 2 ]. RA is an inflammatory condition characterised by the discomfort, stiffness, swelling, and deformity of affected joints [ 3 ].…”

“…Some factors such as the location of the device and the therapist’s own technique in the interpolation of anatomical landmarks, can cause the lack of consistency when using a UG [ 8 ]. Therefore, it is no surprise that reliability is reduced when measuring each small joint independently because the human hand comprises 27 bones of approximately 25 degrees of freedom (DOF) [ 2 ]. Other neurological disorders like PD usually begin with a tremor in one hand but can also cause stiff limbs or slow motion without tremors, thus making the onset of the disease difficult to diagnose at the early stages [ 10 ].…”

Review of Wearable Sensor-Based Health Monitoring Glove Devices for Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…To clarify, the assessment of hand functionality for clinical purposes requires the gathering of several data forms, including for example, resting state, grip strength, velocity, acceleration, and hand joint ROM, etc. Several researchers have conducted investigations into contact systems [ 22 , 25 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. However, current research seems to indicate that contact systems are more sought-after for monitoring hand functionality [ 1 , 5 , 9 , 29 , 48 , 49 ].…”