AI enhanced collaborative human-machine interactions for home-based telerehabilitation.

The use of robots in a telerehabilitation paradigm could facilitate the delivery of rehabilitation on demand while reducing transportation time and cost. As a result, it helps to motivate patients to exercise frequently in a more comfortable home environment. However, for such a paradigm to work, it is essential that the robustness of the system is not compromised due to network latency, jitter, and delay of the internet. This paper proposes a solution to data loss compensation to maintain the quality of the interaction between the user and the system. Data collected from a well-defined collaborative task using a virtual reality (VR) environment was used to train a robotic system to adapt to the users' behaviour. The proposed approach uses nonlinear autoregressive models with exogenous input (NARX) and long-short term memory (LSTM) neural networks to smooth out the interaction between the user and the predicted movements generated from the system. LSTM neural networks are shown to learn to act like an actual human. The results from this paper have shown that, with an appropriate training method, the artificial predictor can perform very well by allowing the predictor to complete the task within 25 s versus 23 s when executed by the human.

A haptically enhanced painting as a tool for neurorehabilitation.

This paper examines a new form of interaction combining haptic and sonic exploration with static visual information from a real painting. Motivated by recent work in neurorehabilitation exploring group interactions with a robot, and by the educational and explorative value of artefacts, we investigate the feasibility of an interactive painting as a potential tool for the rehabilitation of brain injuries. The study consisted of a series of thirty-six single case studies with healthy individuals exploring a painting through haptic feedback with/without sonic interaction and assessed using a multidimensional measurement intended to evaluate the participants' subjective experience. The results showed that participants engaged with the interactive installation and executed more movements while exploring the painting in pairs. It appears that the haptic painting paradigm encourages development of analytical skills, imagination, promotes spatial skills realisation and enhances touch/hearing sensory channels. The results suggest that this approach might be of value to neurorehabilitation by exploring concepts of augmented artefact installations with technology (haptics + sound), promoting social integration and potential use in public spaces.