Our work with QoLT-CMU showcased by NSF

Our collaboration with the Quality of Life Technologies Center at Carnegie Mellon University, a National Science Fundation research center, has been showcased on the Engineering Research Centers website of the NFS as one of QoLT success stories. The system described here is the Neurorehabilitation Training Toolkit (NTT) developed in Madeira, and interfaced to the mpower 1000 device from Myomo Inc. You can find the original article in this link. Here I'm quoting the article as is in their website:

Professor Dan Siewiorek, of the Quality of Life
Technology Center and Carnegie Mellon
University’s Human-Computer Interaction
Institute, observes a demonstration of
Myomo Inc.'s robotic arm system.

"Students Develop Videogame Interface Controller for Commercial Robotic Arm

Outcome/accomplishment: Carnegie Mellon University students developed a videogame-based interface as a way to encourage patients to maintain their therapy regimen with a commercially available robotic arm brace. The students received guidance from computer science professor Dan Siewiorek—who also leads research for the Quality of Life Technology Center's (QoLT) Human-System Interaction Thrust and its Virtual Coach Testbed Systems, in addition to being the center’s Acting Director—as well as from Sergi Bermudez i Badia, Visiting Faculty from the University of Madeira, Portugal. They created the motivational therapy-gaming system in collaboration with Myomo, Inc., a medical device company that works to combine robotics technology with rehabilitation expertise to revolutionize stroke therapy. QoLT is run by CMU jointly with the University of Pittsburgh and is an Engineering Research Center (ERC) funded by the National Science Foundation.

Impact/benefits: Studies indicated that patients were more inclined to perform their therapy exercises regularly if the exercises were performed in the context of playing the games. The gaming applications also captured and reported data on the patient's therapy performance back to the patient and his or her therapist so that he or she could make better decisions about the patient's recommended therapy plans. 

The project’s findings on user engagement and motivation will inform other projects currently underway at the QoLT center, such as the development of service robots, smart assistive technologies, and virtual coach systems that help improve therapy compliance and enhance rehabilitation results. Additionally, Myomo has secured a $200,000 Translational Research Grant to allow it continue to collaborate with QoLT to evolve complementary virtual coaching software for tablet computers. Bermudez i Badia has also been quoted in feature stories by PC Gamer and Fast Company that raise public interest in and awareness of assistive and therapeutic gaming benefits.

Explanation/ background: The Myomo, Inc. neuro-robotic arm brace fits over a patient’s arm and then provides motorized assistance when it detects even the faintest signal from the brain to move the arm muscles. As a therapeutic device, it can train patients to restore lost mobility in their arms. The challenge for Myomo was figuring out how to get patients to maintain discipline with following their prescribed rehabilitation. 

Three students in the class “Mobile and Pervasive Computing,” taught by Siewiorek and M. Satyanarayanan, were tasked with creating an interface between the Myomo arm brace and videogames. They worked with a stroke survivor to develop and test the game interface. Myomo was so impressed with the findings from the project that the company went on to integrate gaming as a part of its therapy solutions."