Serious Game for Fine Motor Control Rehabilitation for Children With Epileptic Encephalopathy: Development and Usability Study.

Background: Epileptic encephalopathy (EE) is defined as the presence of frequent epileptiform activity that adversely impacts development, typically causing the slowing or regression of developmental skills, and is usually associated with frequent seizures. One of the main disturbances in EE is in the coordination of the upper extremities and hands. Traditional rehabilitation for this type of pathology focuses on the alleviation of gross or fine motor disability.

Affective Communication for Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review.

Research on affective communication for socially assistive robots has been conducted to enable physical robots to perceive, express, and respond emotionally. However, the use of affective computing in social robots has been limited, especially when social robots are designed for children, and especially those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Social robots are based on cognitive-affective models, which allow them to communicate with people following social behaviors and rules.

A Velostat-Based Pressure-Sensitive Mat for Center-of-Pressure Measurements: A Preliminary Study.

Center-of-pressure (CoP) displacements play a key role in studies assessing postural stability. The accepted instrument to measure CoP trajectories is the force platform, but pressure-sensitive mats (PSMs) are an alternative composed of a matrix of sensitive cells. A typical cell comprises two electrodes with piezoresistive material in between, while a force platform has a force sensor at each of its corners.

USEQ: A Short Questionnaire for Satisfaction Evaluation of Virtual Rehabilitation Systems.

New emerging technologies have proven their efficacy in aiding people in their rehabilitation. The tests that are usually used to evaluate usability (in general) or user satisfaction (in particular) of this technology are not specifically focused on virtual rehabilitation and patients. The objective of this contribution is to present and evaluate the USEQ (User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire).

The Effect of Balance Training on Postural Control in Patients with Parkinson's Disease Using a Virtual Rehabilitation System.

Objectives: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor clinical alterations among others. Postural problems have serious consequences for patients, not only limiting their daily life but also increasing some risks, like the risk of fall. Inadequate postural control and postural instability is a major problem in PD patients.

Effects of sensory cueing in virtual motor rehabilitation. A review.

Objectives: To critically identify studies that evaluate the effects of cueing in virtual motor rehabilitation in patients having different neurological disorders and to make recommendations for future studies.

Methods: Data from MEDLINE®, IEEExplore, Science Direct, Cochrane library and Web of Science was searched until February 2015. We included studies that investigate the effects of cueing in virtual motor rehabilitation related to interventions for upper or lower extremities using auditory, visual, and tactile cues on motor performance in non-immersive, semi-immersive, or fully immersive virtual environments.

Virtual rehabilitation for multiple sclerosis using a kinect-based system: randomized controlled trial.

Background: The methods used for the motor rehabilitation of patients with neurological disorders include a number of different rehabilitation exercises. For patients who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), the performance of motor rehabilitation exercises is essential. Nevertheless, this rehabilitation may be tedious, negatively influencing patients' motivation and adherence to treatment.

Augmented reality for the assessment of children's spatial memory in real settings.

Short-term memory can be defined as the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active state for a short period of time. Although some instruments have been developed to study spatial short-term memory in real environments, there are no instruments that are specifically designed to assess visuospatial short-term memory in an attractive way to children. In this paper, we present the ARSM (Augmented Reality Spatial Memory) task, the first Augmented Reality task that involves a user's movement to assess spatial short-term memory in healthy children.

The role of virtual motor rehabilitation: a quantitative analysis between acute and chronic patients with acquired brain injury.

Acquired brain injury (ABI) is one of the main problems of disability and death in the world. Its incidence and survival rate are increasing annually. Thus, the number of chronic ABI patients is gradually growing.