Abstract:

Upper extremity rehabilitation after stroke is one of the factors that reduce the subject's quality of life. In recent years, many rehabilitation approaches have been developed and attempted to improve the quality of life of subjects. These range from those that utilize robots to those that emphasize mobility. This study aims to develop a system that prioritizes the latter type of mobility. This paper describes the development of a rehabilitation program for upper limb paralysis after stroke and the development of specialized tools used in the program.

Background:
Previous studies have shown the effectiveness of using computer programs and robots as training aids for upper extremity paralysis in stroke patients. However, some of these systems are large and may require much time and effort from the operating staff. The purpose of this study is to develop a system that allows patients to perform upper limb paralysis training spontaneously. Our region was hit by an earthquake on New Year's Day, 2024 (the 2024 Noto earthquake), which isolated many villages. It is possible that some of these victims needed rehabilitation in hospitals, for example, upper limb paralysis training. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to emphasize that patients themselves can proactively engage in training at home, and to provide a home rehabilitation program to prepare for such disasters that may occur in the future.

Method:
A moving TOP appears on the tablet PC display. The TOP appears from the top of the display, flows down and disappears. The act of pinching the TOP on the display with the thumb and index finger is the training. If the act of pinching with these two fingertips is successful, the TOP disappears from the display with a sound. The game is a competition to see if you can make the TOP disappear from the display within a certain time.
In our study, we are trying to replicate the finger training using a pegboard on a computer screen. The pegboard is often used as evaluation/exercise equipment for the upper extremities’ basic motion in the field of occupational therapy. In this paper, we produce an "additional tool" that mimics the act of pinching the pegboard with these two fingertips and provide it to game users. The purpose is to make game users more aware of the act of pinching. This paper examines whether the use of the "additional tool" by game users facilitates more or less training.

Conclusion:
The recovery of motion function and physical ability of hemiplegic upper extremity requires comprehensive and quantitative evaluations and interventions to improve range-of-motion and muscle as well as motion function and cognitive function. The systems using virtual reality technology have been designed based on this theory and have been tried and tested in clinical settings as robotic therapies. However, there is a trade-off between the improvement of virtual reality technology and the miniaturization of systems. The concept of this study is "rehabilitation training in the hospital room" and "rehabilitation training at home. Therefore, this study emphasizes the miniaturization of the system.

Keywords:

Gamification, Occupational therapy, Upper Limb Rehabilitation.