A proposal of a non-intrusive, global movement analysis of hemiparesis treatment

Abstract

Hemiparesis is a loss of muscle strength on one side of the body, and the most disabling condition after a stroke. Hemiparetic individuals suffer from a loss of muscle strength on one side of the body, resulting in a decreased capacity of performing movements. To assess the quality of Physiotherapy treatment, rating scales are commonly used but with the shortcoming of being subjective. With the aim of developing a system that objectively outcomes how a hemiparetic individual is responding to a Physiotherapy treatment, this paper proposes a method to analyze human functional movement by means of an apparatus comprised of multiple low-cost RGB-D cameras. After extrinsically calibrating the cameras, the setup system should be able to compose a composite skeleton of the target patient, to globally analyze his/her movement according to a reachable workspace and specific energy. These latter both are proposed to be carried out by tracking the hand movements of the patient, and the movement volume produced. Here we present the concept of the proposed system, as well as, the idea of its parts.