Designing and Creating a Virtual Reality Environment and a Wearable Glove with Control and Evaluation Capability to Rehabilitate Patients

Using modern technologies like virtual reality in rehabilitation can promise a great movement in medical sciences as sometimes, these technologies shorten the path of reaching the goal. In the present study, a virtual reality environment with the ability of physical interaction was designed to test and measure the hand motion, and a sample of electronic equipment was presented alongside the virtual reality to help the patients requiring rehabilitation, so that they can use the special and unique feature of this technology for faster improvement and easier access to the exercises in every location, especially at home.

The design and manufacturing processes were performed in two sections: software and hardware. In the software section, the connection to the hardware section and the available processors and sensors in this section was provided under Windows Operating System by designing the virtual reality environment and the required coding, by using the artificial intelligence available on the software, and by defining the movement conditions.

Software-wise and hardware-wise investigation and evaluation of the designed and manufactured equipment were performed according to the type of services provided to 5 patients based on the criteria proposed by Martilla and James involving the importance and performance indicators. The testing and evaluation performed based on these indicators showed the rate of user satisfaction with the provided services and equipment.    

The results obtained from this study showed that a new treatment method can be provided for rehabilitation by measuring the level and amount of the patient’s hand movement and transferring these movements to the virtual environment proportional to the real conditions. Thus, alongside traditional rehabilitation methods, this new method can be effective in the improvement and quicker return of the people in need of rehabilitation to normal conditions.