Rehabilitation Engineering (2005-2008)
Following a stroke (a "brain attack"), the victim suffers from impaired movement, balance and speech. This work looks at applying intelligent technology to improve the care we give to patients recovering from a stroke.
As part of the Healthy AIMS project, we developed a system that delivers electrical stimulation to the muscles and nerves under the skin in order to get the stroke-affected hand to open so that the patient can pick up and release objects once again. The electrical stimulus was delivered based on arm movements, picked up by an accelerometer (like a Wii remote). An easy-to-use interface was also developed so that the stimulator could be programmed quickly and semi-automatically rather than by hand, reducing the amount of time and training required to use it.
In the Postural Objective Evaluation Tool (POET) project, we developed a system that used measurements collected by accelerometers and forceplates (like a Wii Fit) to determine how bad the stroke was. Unlike other systems, ours was very lightweight and portable, and could provide immediate feedback to the clinical staff about how well the patient was doing.