Wii-like motion tech may help rehabilitate stroke survivors

Patients suffering from the after-effects of surviving a stroke may soon find help in the most unlikely of places. A study conducted by a team at City University London seems to suggest that motion technologies found in the likes of Wii Remotes and Sony's PlayStation Move could soon play a vital role in the rehabilitation of stroke survivors.

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The basic idea behind the Gesture Recognition in Aphasia Therapy (GReAT) study is that these relatively cheap technologies could be used by patients as part of ongoing treatments. Aphasia is a common side-effect of strokes that leads to limited spoken or written communication abilities, whose sufferers often learn to use gestures as an alternative to speech.

However, due to other stroke-side effects such as paralysis, helping stroke survivors to learn to use the gestures can lead to costly physio-therapy sessions. The ultimate aim of the project would be to use technology similar to that found in motion-gaming controllers to develop a system that could be used at home by the patients, delivering feedback on the how easily their gestures can be interpreted.

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