Standing balance therapy through portable and low-cost visual feedback training

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low-cost, portable system using a Wii Balance Board to improve standing balance therapy for individuals with spinal cord injuries.

Contribution

The study proposes a cost-effective alternative to expensive force plates using a Wii Balance Board for visual feedback balance training.

Findings

WBB-based COM estimation showed low prediction error and high correlation with force plate data.

Stimulation patterns from the WBB-based system were similar to those from traditional force plates.

The WBB-based system is a promising accessible solution for balance rehabilitation in iSCI patients.

Abstract

Individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI) often fall due to decreased sensorimotor integration. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) therapy combined with visual feedback balance training (VFBT), termed FES+VFBT, can effectively improve standing balance in iSCI populations. Although promising, the need for force plates (FP), which are expensive and bulky, limits the translation of these methods to clinical and home settings. In this work, we propose a solution by replacing FP with Wii Balance Board (WBB), allowing for more accessible FES+VFBT at a lower cost in both clinical and community settings. Our investigations on ten non-injured participants reveal that WBB-based estimated center of mass (COM) has low prediction error and high correlation in both anteroposterior (RMSE: 4.13 ± 0.69 mm, r: 0.94 ± 0.02) and mediolateral directions (RMSE: 6.25 ± 1.80 mm, r: 0.92 ± 0.04) with ground FP-estimated COM, resulting in similar stimulation patterns obtained with the WBB-based approach, indicating that the WBB-based FES+VFBT system could yield a more accessible therapeutic strategy for balance rehabilitation in iSCI.

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