Another down under breakthrough, must be the Coriolis effect. They spin those brain cells in a more cerebral direction.
I've always thought that mechanistically opening and closing the fingers thousands of times a day would defeat spasticity and jumpstart the ability to control your fingers correctly.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/7458365/Home-kit-to-help-stroke-patients/
Stroke patients may soon be able to rehabilitate themselves from
home thanks to the invention of a Wellington engineering student.
Victoria University masters student Abigail Rajendran, 23, has
designed a stroke rehabilitation device and has a company working to
patent and sell it.
Her device straps on to a person's hand to exercise it in an opening
and closing motion, while a connected computer game activates and keeps
both sides of the brain engaged.
Once the person regains the strength to do the motion themselves,
they can increase the resistance from a special liquid in the device
also used in Audi car suspensions.
Until now, stroke patients relied on expensive and large
rehabilitation equipment available only in hospitals. But this new
device would be something they could use regularly at home, Miss
Rajendran said.
Im-Able, a New Zealand company specialising in stroke
rehabilitation, saw the device's potential and got funding from the
Science and Innovation Ministry so Miss Rajendran could develop a
prototype.
Chief executive Sunil Vather said there were few, if any, home
rehabilitation instruments available for people recovering from strokes.
"It's definitely innovative. The key issue is you have got
technology but if it's not accessible to the people who need it you tend
to lack a large chunk of the value for it."
New Zealand stroke patients would be lucky to get one or two hours
of therapy time with a nurse a week, when it should be about 16 hours,
he said.
Miss Rajendran said meeting with stroke victims had made it a lot more real.
"They want to start using it, to start getting better."
The tool was her "baby" that she would be glad to see made a reality.
Since being lured into engineering by a robot at a Victoria
University open day, she aimed to build life-changing products rather
than gadgets that were "cool".
"I guess it's building devices that are actually useful and necessary. The whole helping people out aspect of it."
One of Miss Rajendran's university supervisors, Dr Will Browne, was
impressed by her infectious enthusiasm for creating practical
applications.
"Her research into developing a stroke rehabilitation device has the
potential to make a significant improvement to the lives of people
affected by stroke."
Miss Rajendran will present her idea in Singapore later this month, and in Brisbane in October.
Mr Vather hoped the final product would be completed in about a year.
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