Video Preprocessing of Patient Environmental Data for Use in Virtual Reality Assisted Physical Therapy Systems

Abstract

A variety of movement disorders, including cerebellar tremor and spasticity, may be quantified by using video-tracking techniques. Such analysis has been used to assess pharmacologic effects of antispasticity drugs and to measure performance improvements in spastic patients and in patients with cerebellar tremor by the use of corrective haptic (force) feedback. However, implementation of such techniques has been difficult in real time. Design considerations and methodology for a video preprocessor are presented. Initial results indicate that, with further development, the described approach may be used as a front end to generate therapeutically relevant positional information in real time with significantly decreased requirement for central processor commitment. Real-time output from such a preprocessor should be useable computationally to construct extensions of actual patient environments, including haptic force corridors, or permissible movement spaces, in training and assistive computerized physical therapy environments. The output of the analysis system should assist in meaningful machine interpretation of the patient's visual environment in relation to selected target-seeking behavior. Plans for refinement of the current device are discussed.