Scoring People With Spinal Muscular Atrophy on the Motor Function Measure Using the Microsoft Kinect.

PURPOSE: Assess the ability of the Kinect to capture movement and posture of people with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) during completion of 14 items of the Motor Function Measure, a validated functional rating scale for people with neuromuscular diseases. METHODS: Multicenter feasibility study in which Motor Function Measure items were scored as usual by the participant's therapist during the completion (Score-T) while another therapist scored items based only on the visualization of digital data collected using the Kinect (Score-D). Agreement and disagreement were investigated. RESULTS: Twenty people with SMA type 2 or 3 were participants; 142 items were recorded and analyzed. There was 31.7% agreement between Score-T and Score-D for participants with SMA type 2, and 76.2% for those with SMA type 3. CONCLUSIONS: The results prevent us from considering the use of Kinect capture to deduce an automated scoring, but this device may be of interest to highlight potential compensations.

Personalized upper limb orthosis necessitates variety of tools during the development process: hemiplegic child case study.

PURPOSE: A design methodology for the creation of an upper-limb dynamic orthosis for children was developed in this article. For a non-negligible numerous of cases, orthoses are abandoned for many reasons: they are expensive, heavy, complicated to use, uncomfortable, non-customized, and so on. Three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies are a way to answer a lot of these issues. Moreover, virtual reality and serious games are more and more used in rehabilitation for users' motivation and sometimes for disability evaluation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Microsoft Kinect and Leap Motion technologies combined with games were manipulated to identify the user abilities. Meetings with specialists were made to develop the technical specifications of the orthosis. 3D printer was used with an iterative process for the development of the personalized orthosis. It allowed to progressively focus on the final product thanks to successive prototypes. A Polylactic Acid material was validated with specialists to verify the product reliability. RESULTS: Thirteen prototypes were printed. Technical adjustments were done regarding the 3D printer technology and the molding procedure during the first development cycles. User and physiotherapists were more involved during the 4 final cycles. CONCLUSIONS: A combination of design process, technological tools and technical material allowed a 67 g dynamic upper-limb orthosis to be produced, satisfying all technical specifications.Implications for rehabilitationAn iterative design process allows to quickly manufacture and test numerous physical prototypes with design team and final user.Moulding material can be used with 3D printer technologies for facilitating the personalization of the orthosis.Virtual reality and serious game are used as engineering tools to clarify the patient's abilities and needs.

Designing for physically disabled users: benefits from human motion capture - a case study.

PURPOSE: The present study aimed to improve the design of an interface that may help disabled children to play a musical instrument. The main point is to integrate human motion capture in the design process. METHOD: The participant performed 20 pointing movements toward four selected locations. A three one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed in order to determine the most efficient input location. For each button position, we compared (1) the reaction time (RT), (2) the movement time (MT), and (3) the spatial variability of the movements. RESULTS: According to the results obtained for RT and MT, one position was the most efficient button location in order to produce efficient movements. CONCLUSIONS: As the case study showed, combining the 3D motion capture system and the statistical analysis led to help the designers their design methodology and crucial choices. Implications for Rehabilitation The paper point out the possibility for designers to use motion capture science to improve the efficiency of the personal interface manipulation to play musical instrument. This experiment with the disabled user allows researcher not only to propose standard procedure to characterize an interface but also to take into account the complete behaviour of the user: from the decision of the movement to the execution of the action. The discussion and the experiment with the disabled user help him to better understand its own difficulties. This kind of experimental procedure helps a lot the user in his future rehabilitation choices and decisions.