Abstract :
Foot-drop is a kind of disabling problems commonly observed in stroke patients. Foot-drop decreases the life quality of the patients and the rehabilitation is necessary. However the walking restoration is a long-term course and only small percent of the foot-drop patients stuck to the years lasting treatment. How to encourage the patients to actively involve in the treatment course and achieve full benefits of rehabilitation is a great challenge. To address the problem, the present work introduced persuasive technology into the footdrop training to help the patients by promoting individual behavior. The persuasive technology is embedded in a behavior model for patients undergoing rehabilitation. The model has three key factors, namely, target, ability and motivation. In this work, the characteristics of foot-drop patients are analyzed to make a rehabilitation plan, or a training target is assigned. To accomplish the training target, sufficient motivation and the ability to perform the behavior are required. Motion ability is estimated by gait parameters collected by sensors attached on the patients and the motivation is inspired by encouraging patients to walk independently. To gain the training task, the motion ability is enhanced by supervised exercising and functional electrical stimulation, while video game is used to make the training target more accessible. Preliminary results demonstrate that the proposed system may offer a helpful scenario for foot drop rehabilitation.
