Finger extension is an important hand function and is crucial for object exploration and manipulation. Unfortunately, the impairment of this motor function is common among stroke survivors. A training environment incorporating Augmented Reality (AR) in conjunction with assistive devices has been developed for the rehabilitation of finger extension. The environment consists of three components: the stroke survivor user element consisting of AR equipment / software and body-powered orthosis; the therapist element comprised of monitoring / control interface with visual, audio and force feedback; and the networking module which interconnects these two. In this paper we present the structure of this environment along with the results from a pilot case study with a stroke survivor.

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Luo, X., Kenyon, R., Kline, T., Waldinger, H., Kamper, D., An Augmented Reality Training Environment for Post-Stroke Finger Extension Rehabilitation, Proceedings of the IEEE 9th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, Chicago, IL, June 28th, 2005.