DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A STROKE REHABILITATION GLOVE FOR MEASURING AND MONITORING HAND MOTIONS

Abstract

Muscular weakness tends to increase very rapidly due to various medical illnesses such as stroke, paralysis, fibromyalgia, etc. In order to keep tracks of the rehabilitative progress of patients who are suffering from such diseases, it is necessary to acquire data pertaining to finger movements including flexion and extension. Along with range of motions of proximal interphalangeal (PIP), distal interphalangeal (DIP) and meta-capo phalangeal joints, pinching strength is also vital in assessing the progress of rehabilitative therapies. Hence, our objective is to develop an assistive technology in the form of a smart glove comprising of flex and force sensors for measuring flexion and extension movements as well as the pinching strength. To the best of author’s knowledge, commercially available rehabilitation gloves are expensive and have some limitations such as being non-portable, having an antenna mount on the gloves facing upward and so on. The smart glove was able to measure the flexion and extension of finger movements and pinch strength with low-power requirements and low cost associated with production. The flexion and extension of finger movements along with pinching strength of stroke survivors was measured with the aid of the glove and showed promising outcomes. Through the results achieved by our developed glove, we were able to analyze the rehabilitative progress of stroke survivors. Moreover, the data is monitored continuously through liquid crystal display for rehabilitation purposes. Notably, this low cost glove was designed with the aid of flex sensors and force sensors that enabled the effective measurement of flexion, extension and pinching strength of stroke survivors.