Healthcare Through Play

Department of Electrical Engineering

Project Abstract

Our Healthcare at Play concept is to build a hand rehabilitation device integrated with a game that promotes rehabilitation. Our hand rehabilitation device is specifically geared towards patients with osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is often associated with limitation of motion of the joint and is the most common form of arthritis that affects millions of people in the US. The symptoms of osteoarthritis include stiffness, swelling of the joints, local pain, and tenderness. The hand device consists of four localized force sensitive resistor sensors, a sensor for the pointer, middle, ring, and pinky finger, attached to a stress ball molded to fit the hand. The sensors placed on the ball shall read the amount of pressure the patient is exerting onto the ball. The device mainly targets the tips of the fingers and the entire finger as a whole when the device is in use. The game interfaced with the device mainly uses the “fingertip touch” technique to improve the mobility of the fingers and incentivizes repetition for faster rehabilitation. Gentle hand exercises can help keep ligaments and tendons flexible which can improve the patient's range of motion and maintain hand function. The sensors in the fingertips will be connected to the Arduino and interfaced with a game created in Processing to help the patient interact with the sensor while doing their physical therapy.