Innovative virtual reality technology revolutionizes stroke therapy

Have your doctor find out how long before this becomes available to bring back hand function. Its only 1.5 years old so your doctor better know about this.
videos at link.
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=201800
Stroke patients can now rev up recovery as a guest at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party with the March Hare as their therapist.

Playing 3-D games in a fantasy virtual reality environment such as Alice in Wonderland is a new avenue for rehabilitation and it sure beats monotonous sessions of moving objects from one box to another to repair motor skills.

“Virtual reality therapy is so popular right now because patients get bored,” said artist Daria Tsoupikova, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Art and Design.

With virtual reality, patients get excited. “They can see something colorful, they can see some kind of environment, other characters, and have a story behind the therapy,” she said.

Advances in stroke therapy are rapidly evolving with virtual reality techniques. Tsoupikova, along with Derek Kamper, the principal investigator, Dr. Nikolay Stoykov, a biomedical engineer, Randy Vick, an art therapist, Yu Li, an art research assistant and a group of occupational therapists and engineers from the Hand Rehabilitation Laboratory at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, collaborated to develop a virtual reality environment to assist stroke patients with hand rehabilitation.

RIC began with a project utilizing a specially calibrated glove that patients wear in conjunction with a virtual reality environment. In this virtual world, the patient is guided through a series of therapeutic hand movements.

Now, Tsoupikova is working with computer scientists at the UIC’s Electronic Visualization Laboratory and RIC physicians to further develop the glove technology.

Tsoupikova recently received a Fulbright Scholarship and spent four months at the Arts et Métiers Paris Tech in France where she worked testing software for an online home therapy system.

Tsoupikova’s virtual world has the Alice in Wonderland theme. The patient is a guest at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and the host of the party, the March Hare, is the patient’s therapist.

The March Hare leads the patient through a variety of exercises interacting with animated objects in the virtual tea party scene. Patients use grasp-and-release techniques and finger movements.

The rehabilitation program Tsoupikova created is simple. The user logs in online with a user ID and password, sees themselves as a guest at the tea party, and their therapist as the March Hare. The therapist then shows the patient a series of exercises and asks them to repeat the movements.

“It is like a multi-user 3-D game with your goal being rehabilitation,” said Tsoupikova. “The therapist will be able to see if the patient is doing the movement correctly or incorrectly.”
Home systems would benefit patients who often have limited mobility after a stroke.

“The problem is,” Tsoupikova said, “most stroke patients not only have an impaired hand, but they have other problems too.” Many of them are in wheelchairs, and are unable to use public transportation to get to their therapy sessions.