A Kinect-Based Biomechanical Assessment of Neurological Patients' Motor Performances for Domestic Rehabilitation

Stroke is one of the main causes of disability in Western countries. Damaged brain areas are not able to provide the fine-tuned muscular control typical of human upper-limbs, resulting in many symptoms that affect consistently patients’ daily-life activities. Neurological rehabilitation is a multifactorial process that aims at partially restoring the functional properties of the impaired limbs, taking advantage of neuroplasticity, i.e. the capability of re-aggregating neural networks in order to repair and substitute the damaged neural circuits. Recently, many virtual reality-based, robotic and exoskeleton approaches have been developed to exploit neuroplasticity and help conventional therapies in clinic. The effectiveness of such methods is only partly demonstrated. Patients’ performances and clinical courses are assessed via a variety of complex and expensive sensors and time-consuming techniques: motion capture systems, EMG, EEG, MRI, interaction forces with the devices, clinical scales. Evidences show that benefits are proportional to treatment duration and intensity. Clinics can provide intensive assistance just for a limited amount of time. Thus, in order to preserve the benefits and increase them in time, the rehabilitative process should be continued at home. Simplicity, easiness of use, affordability, reliability and capability of storing logs of the rehabilitative sessions are the most important requirements in developing devices A Kinect-Based Biomechanical Assessment of Neurological Patients’ Motor Performances for Domestic Rehabilitation