Haptic-based Virtual Environment Design and Modeling of Motor Skill Assessment for Brain Injury PatientsRehabilitation

This paper presents a new haptic-based virtual environment system for diagnosis and rehabilitation of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) patients. By using the latest technologies, including Virtual Reality (VR), haptic force feedback and telecommunications, the system can work as an alternative to traditional labor intensive and expensive diagnosis and rehabilitation procedures for TBI patients. This paper also introduces a general approach to the design and prototyping of a haptic-based VR system for motor skill assessment and rehabilitation. A numerical model is presented to describe and record the motor skill assessment results and parameterize the rehabilitation training process. The prototype system demonstrates the potential for using advanced information and haptic-based VR technologies to build more effective and intelligent tools for healthcare. The specific techniques developed in this research can be used for motor-skill evaluation in clinical practice.