A Comparison between Influence of Visual and Haptic Feedback on Jerk Indicators in Hand Exercises

The general aim of this research is to build up a haptic system for rehabilitation in motor control of hand, intended as upper limb proximal extremity. The system is made of a commercial haptic interface called “Falcon”, by Novint, connected to a PC. Healthy subjects were requested to perform exercises moving the handle of the interface. Data on handle position during the performance were recorded and jerk was extracted, then the mean squared jerk ratio was calculated. Results obtained from exercises done with or without visual and haptic feedback will be shown.