Modern Stroke Rehabilitation Through E-health-based Entertainment

This book describes a new, “e-Health” approach to stroke rehabilitation. The authors propose an alternative approach that combines state of the art ICT technologies ranging from Augmented and Virtual Reality gaming environments to latest advances in immersive user interfaces for delivering a mixed-reality training platform, along with advanced embedded micro sensing and computing devices exhibiting enhanced power autonomy by using the latest Bluetooth Smart communication interfaces and energy saving approaches. These technologies are integrated under the umbrella of an online Personal Health Record (PHR) services allowing for delivery of personalized, patient-centric medical services whether at home, in a clinic or on the move.

• Describes innovative ways for achieving mixed-reality gaming environments;
• Enhances immersive experience by combining virtual projections with user interfaces based on body motion analysis;
• Offers cost-effective body motion capture by hybridizing wearable sensor data;
• Utilizes energy-efficient micro-embedded sensors for wearable physiological and sensing and activity monitoring applications;
• Includes innovative, power autonomous sensing using Body Area Networks;
• Describes the prototype of the portable, integrated rehabilitation training solution.

This book is a joint effort of a number of people involved in the FP7-StrokeBack project, representing different companies and describing their respective achievements in this publication. It is a multi-disciplinary team, which has dealt with advanced research and development in diverse technological areas, from wireless sensor networks including middleware and security issues (IHP, Intracom Telecom and Meytec), signal processing for body movement tracing (University of Southampton and RFSAT Ltd), decision support and human computer interfaces for serious games (University of Potsdam, University of Pannonia and RFSAT Ltd) and rehabilitation training with patients (Brandenburg Clinic). The names of people involved can be found in the respective chapters. The efforts of the whole team have been coordinated by Dr Artur Krukowski from Intracom Telecom from Greece and Mrs Emmanouela Vogiatzaki from RFSAT Ltd from the United Kingdom.

Dr Krukowski is a senior engineer and research projects manager with over twenty years of experience in such technological areas as Digital Signal Processing (DSP) for telecommunication systems, ultra-low power embedded wireless sensing devices, Digital Audio (DAB) and Video Broadcasting (DVB), computer and network security, satellite (GNSS) and wireless positioning technologies, Smart Critical Infrastructures, Building Management Systems and GIS information systems. He is a frequent reviewer of IEEE journals and conferences, often acting as external expert for many international research projects and as reviewer/rapporteur for proposal submitted for funding to national and European Research Framework programs. He is a Steering Board member of the Networked Media (NEM) European Technology Platform (ETP) and Industrial Management Group for Security research (IMG-S).

Mrs Vogiatzaki coordinates research and development activities of the “Media for Performing Arts” department of RFSAT Ltd. She is also associated with the University of Peloponnesus in Greece. She focuses in her research and teaching on the impact of technologies on human-machine interfaces and especially on Culture and Performing Arts. Areas that she investigates include media broadcasting, collaborative environments employing augmented reality and virtual reality settings, body motion tracking and immersive user interfaces, cyber-physical systems, seamless mix of virtual elements with fully-immersive environments, tele-presence and immersive-reality systems, micro-embedded sensing, services and applications.