Free hand interaction therapy for Parkinson’s disease using leap motion

Abstract

This project is based on developing a system for Parkinson’s disease patients to give them free hand interaction therapies using the leap motion controller. Increasing demand for health applications for the more helpless people like Parkinson’s patients has led to develop an important system of this nature. Primary signs of Parkinson’s disease include tremor of hands, arms, legs, jaw and face. Physical therapies and exercise programs are recommended in people with Parkinson's disease to control the disease and to give them a better life. Rehabilitation methods using serious game without any device attached to the body is proposed for Parkinson's patients with limited mobility in order to restore their ability to independently perform the basic activities of daily living or to recover a lost or diminished function by performing exercises on a regular basis. Leap Motion is an optical sensor specially designed for acquisition of 3D positions and orientations of hands and fingers. The main purpose of the sensor was to extend current input devices with 3D control for VR environments. The Leap Motion Controller is capable of detecting and tracking hands, fingers, and tools in its field of view. The device captures data one frame at a time and the rate at which this occurs, or frame-rate, can vary based on the lighting conditions, but typically occurs at approximately 100 frames per second (fps). The device is capable of recording the three dimensional fingertip positions, which is done in millimeters relative to the device’s origin. The Leap Motion Controller follows a righthanded Cartesian coordinate system, with the origin centered at the top and middle of the Leap Motion Controller In this project, the Leap Motion sensor is used to give hand and finger therapies for Parkinson's patients using serious game application developed using three js. The scope of this project is to track the motion of the fingers of the hand and to exercise the fingers of the hand. Further to track the progress of the patient by giving an analysis of the output. Each patient should use a separate login and it will help to keep the records and analyze to monitor the progression of the Parkinson’s patient.