Rehabilitation Engineering

Abstract

“Rehabilitation engineering” is the application of science and technology to ameliorate the handicaps of individuals with disabilities in order to reintegrate them into society. The goal of this lecture is to present classical and new rehabilitation engineering principles and examples applied to compensate or enhance motor, sensor, and cognitive (communicational) deficits.

Objective

Provide theoretical and practical knowledge of principles and applications used to rehabilitate individuals with motor, sensor, and cognitive disabilities.

Content

“Rehabilitation” is the (re)integration of an individual with a disability into society. Rehabilitation engineering is “the application of science and technology to ameliorate the handicaps of individuals with disability”. Such handicaps can be classified into motor, sensor, and cognitive (also communicational) disabilities. In general, one can distinguish orthotic and prosthetic methods to overcome these disabilities. Orthoses support existing but affected body functions (e.g., glasses, crutches), while prostheses compensate for lost body functions (e.g., cochlea implant, artificial limbs). In case of sensory disorders, the lost function can also be substituted by other modalities (e.g. tactile Braille display for vision impaired persons). The goal of this lecture is to present classical and new technical principles as well as specific examples applied to compensate or enhance motor, sensor, and cognitive deficits. Modern methods rely more and more on the application of multi-modal and interactive techniques. Multi-modal means that visual, acoustical, tactile, and kinaesthetic sensor channels are exploited by displaying the patient with a maximum amount of information in order to compensate his/her impairment. Interaction means that the exchange of information and energy occurs bi-directionally between the rehabilitation device and the human being. Thus, the device cooperates with the patient rather than imposing an inflexible strategy (e.g., movement) upon the patient. Multi-modality and interactivity have the potential to increase the therapeutical outcome compared to classical rehabilitation strategies.

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