A new smart balance rehabilitation system technology platform: Development and preliminary assessment of the Smarter Balance System for home-based balance rehabilitation for individuals with Parkinson's disease.

Physical and balance rehabilitation programs have been shown to improve postural stability and balance performance and to be more effective than dopaminergic medication and surgical treatments for individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). This paper describes the development and assessment of a new Smarter Balance System (SBS) intended for home-based use by individuals with PD. We report the initial results of a long-term study currently underway that quantifies the clinical impacts of using the SBS during a 6-week, home-based rehabilitation program.

Usability and Validation of the Smarter Balance System: An Unsupervised Dynamic Balance Exercises System for Individuals With Parkinson's Disease.

Conventional physical and balance rehabilitation programs to improve balance performance and increase postural stability are often limited due to cost, availability of physical therapists, and accessibility to rehabilitation facilities. Exercise compliance is also affected by a loss of memory and decline in motivation in prescribed home-based balance training. We have developed the smarter balance system (SBS) incorporating multimodal biofeedback (visual plus vibrotactile) intended for clinical and home-based balance rehabilitation and assessed its efficacy on physical therapists' recommended dynamic weight-shifting balance exercises (dynamic WSBE) in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Development and assessment of a novel ankle rehabilitation system for stroke survivors.

Spasticity after stroke is a common occurrence and requires treatment with rehabilitative regimens (e.g., stretching exercise).

The Effects of Coding Schemes on Vibrotactile Biofeedback for Dynamic Balance Training in Parkinson's Disease and Healthy Elderly Individuals.

Coding scheme for earlier versions of vibrotactile biofeedback systems for balance-related applications was primarily binary in nature, either on or off at a given threshold (range of postural tilt), making it unable to convey information about error magnitude. The purpose of this paper was to explore the effects of two coding schemes (binary versus continuous) for vibrotactile biofeedback during dynamic weight-shifting exercises that are common physical therapists' recommended balance exercises used in clinical settings. Nine individuals with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and nine healthy elderly individuals participated in this paper.