Low-Cost Joystick for Pediatric Respiratory Exercises

Abstract

The use of body signals for health care applications has become ubiquitous in the last decade. One utilization of such measurements is the monitoring of respiratory flow for physiotherapy assistance. This application is based on relative flow measures which can rely on inexpensive sensors. Based on that, we present a low-cost electronic device that detects blows and suctions with a pressure sensor and emulates a keyboard for interfacing with computers. This joystick allows children to control free internet games by associating blows and suctions with different intensities to keyboard actions. Also, the intensity can be calibrated according to the user’s pulmonary capacities. This feature is adequate for gradual respiratory physiotherapy and can be customized for each patient. In order to verify the operation of the proposed device, practical tests were performed with three online free games, where the joystick functionality was assessed with different therapeutic configurations.

Addition of respiratory exercises to conventional rehabilitation for children and adolescents with cerebral palsy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Pulmonary rehabilitation in children with chronic lung diseases has been extensively studied and points out protocols with respiratory exercises aimed at chest mobility and abdominal muscle strengthening, which lead to improved chest expansion and increased lower thoracic mobility, thus suggesting better diaphragmatic work and increased quality of life and exercise capacity [7][8][9][10][11]. Some of these exercises were also proposed for children with CP [12,13].…”