Stevens Institute of Technology
Raviraj Nataraj’s research leverages a patient’s physical and mental states to improve training speed, effectiveness and outcomes
Realistically, how many times do you think you could repeat the same action — such as moving a pen from one spot on your desk to another — with little variation?
What if your natural motions were limited? Or if simply holding up your arm required additional physical and mental effort?
Physically, mentally and emotionally, how many times do you think you could do it? Fifty times? Maybe 100?
For patients with brain or spinal cord injuries, physical therapy to recover the voluntary movement, or motor function needed to conduct everyday activities can involve repeating such motions from hundreds to tens of thousands of times spread over a period of weeks, months — even years. Although designed to ultimately improve a patient’s independence and quality of life, the stress, strain and time commitment required can be grueling.
So how do you motivate a person to show up and do yet another set of exercises when the process is so fatiguing to the body, mind and spirit?
In recent years, incorporating gamification and virtual reality (VR) has become more prevalent in motor therapy, using the fun and incentives of gaming and the immersive experience of virtual reality to engage patients to participate in their therapy regimen for longer periods and more repetitions.
But highly realistic graphics and high score incentives cannot solve the problem alone. In fact, the use of VR motor therapy does not always achieve better outcomes than traditional methods or ensure patients gain results any faster than before.
The missing piece, says Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and principal investigator of the Movement Control Rehabilitation Laboratory Raviraj Nataraj, is personalization. Or more specifically, personalization of a VR therapy platform based not only on how well a patient is performing, but how well the person is feeling. . . .
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