Kinect within Therapy

Recommended equipment

Recent developments within the world of technology have seen an increase in usage of the Kinect primesense camera within rehabilitation.The Kinect was released as a motion controlled sensor for the Microsoft Xbox in November 2010.  Since then Microsoft have released what are known as its SDK – Service Development Kits, which enable programmers to develop software that will work with the Kinect – something that Nintendo have never done.Read below for an overview of the Kinect – how it works and its potential within therapy, or go to the blog site ‘Kinect’in Therapy’ by clicking on the image below.If you have any questions about the use of the Kinect, please feel free to get in touch.

1. Xbox & Kinect – the obvious starting point as it demos the motion control potential at a ‘commercial’ level. Its application in therapy is less appropriate though due to the high level of quality of movement to make selections and control movements. The games often present the player/patient as an avatar, which I think challenges the perception of body image for some people with deformities/limited movements.

 

2. Rehabilitation software – PC based software using the Kinect for Microsoft Camera. 

Several options for rehab software are beginning to be released for purchase and general use.  Please visit the following links for more information about each software.  Reviews maybe available on the blog on the wiihabilitation website.

VirtualRehab – http://www.virtualrehab.info/

 MIRA Rehab – http://www.mirarehab.com/

SeeMe Rehab – http://www.virtual-reality-rehabilitation.com/

 Jintronix – http://www.jintronix.com/

  Doctor Kinect – http://doctorkinetic.nl/en/

 KineLabs – http://myweb.polyu.edu.hk/~kinelabs/

  NeuMimic – http://www.neumimic.com/

  Reflexion Health – http://reflexionhealth.com/

Fullscreen capture 07052014 221438 Rehabtics – http://www.rehabtics.com/

3. FAAST – http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/faast/  FAAST is an emulator that interprets movements created into key strokes which enables windows based games or applications to be controlled through movement. Theres quite a bit of setup in this, but the researchers have been developing games within rehab – its worth looking at their ‘Jewel Thief’ using the primesense camera video on youtube.

4. Kinect2scratch – http://scratch.mit.edu/ Scratch is a basic programming studio which enables ‘anyone’ to write a computer program. There is some software called Kinect2Scratch that links the Kinect camera to the programming studio – meaning that some games can be controlled using motion control via the kinect camera. A couple of students in Ireland and putting together some simple rehab games using this method. Their webpage with more info is http://www.projectmapr.com/

5. Kinect for Microsoft SDK – This is likely to be where most of the development comes from. Unlike Nintendo who have kept coding/programmer commercial, Microsoft has invited people to write their own programs/software. I don’t write programs but I have downloaded the SDK and had a good number of the applications working with ease – e.g the mouse controller and paint program. They aren’t rehab orientated as such, but do demonstrate the quality and control that is achievable.Any additional information about all of the above methods of accessing movement control with the Kinect will be posted and therefore available on the Kinect’in Therapy Blog website – found by clicking the Blogger icon below.

If you have any additional information or experiences that you wish to share, please email me.