Mixed reality environments in stroke rehabilitation: interfaces across the real/virtual divide

Previous studies have examined the use of virtual environments (VEs) for stroke and similar rehabilitation. To be of real benefit it is essential that skills (re-)learned within a VE transfer to corresponding real-world situations. Many tasks have been developed in VEs, but few have shown effective transfer of training. We believe that, by softening the real/virtual divide, mixed reality technology has the potential to ease the transfer of rehabilitation activities into everyday life. We present two mixed reality systems, designed to support rehabilitation of activities of daily living and providing different mixtures of digital and physical information. Functional testing of these systems is described. System development and user evaluation continues, some of which is described in a sister paper (Edmans et al 2004) in this volume.