Dual camera motion capture for serious games in stroke rehabilitation

Typically, stroke upper limb rehabilitation exercises consist of repeated movements, which when tracked can form the basis of inputs to games. Markerless motion capture technologies can be used to enable such serious game control. This has the advantage that patients do not need to hold or wear any controls or devices, which may be difficult and restrictive for them. This research introduces a set of 3D games which require the sorts of repeated movements considered effective in the reacquisition of post-stroke motor skills. A system that uses markerless motion capture technologies to track and identify human low-level motion, i.e. the movement of hands and hand gesture to control the games, is described. The system uses dual cameras, an optical camera and a thermal camera which measures skin temperature, to obtain robust tracking performance. Moreover, the temperature features can also be used to monitor patients' physical status when they play games. Evaluation of the system is discussed.