Interactive glove for mobility training and rehabilitation after stroke

Abstract: Stroke affects a vast amount of people every year. As a result, many survivors have at least partially lost some of their abilities which are necessary to complete everyday activities. Although rehabilitation can be used to improve those abilities, many survivors claim that conventional methods are demotivating and discouraging. The aim of this project is to develop and test interactive objects, which would implement activities that are scientifically proven to have good effects for stroke rehabilitation. Different exercises for stroke rehabilitation have been studied and their feasibility of implementation evaluated. Furthermore, previous research and a few existing solutions are also presented in this paper. This thesis describes creating a glove using an iterative design process, which would implement several hand exercises to control a computer’s mouse and keyboard. The core of the glove is the Arduino Leonardo microcontroller, which is connected to different sensors sewn into the glove. Hand exercises, such as wrist extension and flexion or finger lifting, are used to control the computer in a simple way. For example, to simulate an arrow key keystroke, the user has to apply pressure on his/her fingertips where force sensors are located. The final prototype was tested by multiple people. Although the user experience and functionality of it could be improved, all participants said that they enjoyed using the device. Hence, using the results from this project as well as from previous research, it can be concluded that interactive objects can be motivational and encouraging for mobility training and stroke rehabilitation.