Linear and circular tracking exercises in haptic virtual environments for hand control assessment

Objective tracking tests for evaluating the functional studies of the upper limbs (UL) in patients with neuromuscular disorders (NMD) and neurological disorders (ND) are presented. The experimental measurement setup and the methodology for the assessment of upper limb functional state uses the Phantom 1.5. The measurement setup consists of a powerful virtual reality simulator, capable of providing quality haptic, visual and audio feedback in two different tracking tasks/exercises. The Phantom 1.5 haptic interface serves as a kinematic measuring device and as a force feedback generator, providing disturbance forces to the patient. The method has been applied to 75 patients with various forms of NMD and ND as well as to 19 healthy subjects. Some typical characteristics of the upper limb movement, affected by neuro-muscular disorders are shown in a quantitative manner. Data mining was used to demonstrate good content validity of the proposed tests.