Development of an Aesthetic for a Stroke Rehabilitation System

Works around stroke rehabilitation devices have largely focused on improving their performance to aid in physical training. By providing better physical training for patients, it allows them to quickly achieve adequate autonomy in life. However, this leaves little development in their aesthetics, potentially failing to address the impact on patients’ self-integrity. This paper proposes the aesthetic development of an immersive multi-sensorial stroke rehabilitation system, entitled MIDAS (Multisensorial Immersive Dynamic Autonomous System), based on the improvement of self-affirmation of aesthetic products. MIDAS consists of three subsystems, a hand exoskeleton, a Virtual Reality (VR), and an Olfactory subsystem. The functional requirement of the system and the design language of the VR subsystem were used as the basis for the aesthetic framework for the rest of the subsystems. The outcomes were a hand exoskeleton with a minimalist linkage system paired with an organic casing, and an olfactory device with a rounded form attached to a frameless face-shield.