An Interactive Training System Design For Ankle Rehabilitation

Ankle sprain is a common trauma,80%-90% patients can recover by non-surgical treatments.Prolonged immobilization of ankle sprains is a common treatment error.But many people with ankle injuries ignore the rehabilitation exercises,which will lead to a series of problems – persistent pain,swelling and even chronic ankle instability(CAI).The survey data show that the majority of CAI patients have a history of acute sprains and CAI patients normally need surgical treatments.Although it is important to individualize each rehabilitation program,medical experts have developed mature rehabilitation training templates that patients in different periods of recovery can adapt with.However,without professional guides,people can rarely do rehabilitation exercises,and even they do it,they do not know if they are doing it properly.When clinicians told the patients to do some rehabilitation exercises after acute ankle sprain,they may find it boring and hard to keep on.Therefore,although the medical research in ankle rehabilitation is well developed,the ankle rehabilitation training is not effective nor efficient enough.This paper shows a way to improve the effects and experiences of ankle rehabilitation process through interactive design and gamification.There are 3 stages of ankle rehabilitation training process,which are early functional rehabilitation,intermediate functional rehabilitation and advanced functional rehabilitation.This paper focuses on the second stage-proprioceptive training of intermediate functional rehabilitation.The normal training exercise of the second stage is bilateral and unilateral stance on a circular wobble board which can help to improve strength and balance.However,the training process is monotonous,so people can hardly complete the required amount of training,which will affect the training result.Besides,proprioception is useful for preventing injury in slow,moderately rapid tasks.However,it may not be adequate for forces that challenge neuromuscular system at the highest levels.Therefore,the interactive training system is a serious game consisting of 2 parts.One is the wobble board with multi-touch pressure sensors that can acquire the data of users' feet pressure distribution,the other is the user interface that displays a visual game in response to instant processed pressure data.So,the interactive training system can give users instant feedbacks.When users standing on the board,their feet force can be visualized by pressure map.By analyzing the pressure map,the system can judge if the user is doing the proper training action.The result is not given directly but shown through a pressure sensing game.Users can control the directions of the game subject by feet force changes(The pressure data are processed to apply to the game control module)to avoid the obstacles.When the users succeed a game,they complete a training task at the same time.When performing proprioception and balance exercises,a common mistake is the lack of variability in speed and intensity,so clinicians provides resistance and random perturbations while maintaining balance.By changing the distribution and movement of obstacles,the interactive system can change the training contents continuously,so that the users can complete one training task with variability in speed and intensity.Negative feedbacks of the training are shown as game fails so that users can correct their actions by themselves.Gamification elements are applied into the interactive training system.Rewards and success of games can encourage users' confidence and arouse their interest.The setting of game levels can meet the demands of different recovery periods,because the same training exercises still vary in amount,intensity and other aspects as the users are recovering gradually.The rehabilitation exercise is 5-10 repetitions one time and 2-3 times a day.The duration and frequency of the rehabilitation exercise can be designed as game rounds and goals.A comparative test is implemented between the traditional training method and the interactive training system.The training contents and quantity are the same.It can be found that people in traditional training group get impatient more often than the interactive training group.And those in the interactive training group failed a lot at first but showed enormous interest to finish the task.According to the effectiveness,efficiency and satisfaction result by questionnaires,users in the interactive training group show higher satisfaction of the training process and effects.And 88% people in the group said that they would like to continue the interactive training if needed.This paper only concentrates on one kind of exercises of ankle rehabilitation training,but with professional medical assistance,a complete interactive training program can be achieved.And considering different people's conditions,the training system initiates a test procedure,which can help to define a specific training plan for users with different degrees of ankle injuries.Or according to different people's condition,clinicians can choose a suitable training program from established training programs of the system.