Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications
Evaluating Mixed Reality Technology for Tracking Hand Motion for Shoulder Rehabilitation Assessment*
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
9-2024
Journal
2024 International Conference for Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), Heidelberg, Germany, Sep 2024.
Abstract
Shoulder injuries and conditions are common musculoskeletal complaints that can limit a patient’s range of motion and daily activities. Recently, serious games and mixed reality technologies, such as the HoloLens, have been proposed for shoulder rehabilitation. However, it is unclear if this technology accurately tracks 3D hand movementsfor reporting therapy-related kinematic metrics. This paper presents accuracy and repeatability tests of the HoloLens 2 in tracking hand movements, and its potential for shoulder rehabilitation assessment. Comparisons were made between index fingertip, palm, and wrist movements captured by the HoloLens 2 and an Aurora electromagnetic system, which was used as the ground truth. A mixed-reality environment was developed to capture static hand positions, as well as dynamic hand movements performed during a shoulder physiotherapy-based exercise. The tracking data were used to calculate several kinematic metrics. The results show that the HoloLens 2 handtracking system is accurate to within a median of 10.2 mm and has repeatability comparable to the Aurora system, with the palm exhibiting the best results. The HoloLens 2 data are suitable for computing kinematic metrics for shoulder rehabilitation assessment, achieving accuracies above 86.9% for all of the tested metrics. Metrics such as time-to-speed peak and the log dimensionless jerk were found to have significant differences between dynamic hand movements. These findings support the mixed reality technology potential to assist shoulder rehabilitation through immersive and interactive environments.
Notes
©IEEE 2024 International Conference for Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), Heidelberg, Germany, Sep 2024.