Rehabilitation systems for physically disabled patients: A brief review of sensor-based computerised signal-monitoring systems

Abstract

This brief review addresses the existing systems and challenges and provides future recommendations on computer- and biosensor-assisted rehabilitation systems for physically disabled patients. We further list the types of sensors, technical issues, and different software and hardware technologies that are currently used in rehabilitation systems to make the whole process dynamic and real-time. The review focused on 36 consolidated studies that were found using the following keywords: rehabilitation system, sensor, and computer. The electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched for relevant articles that were published from 2007 through 2012. These published articles included discussion of several biosensors, automated rehabilitation systems, and the application of these systems in the affected body parts of the individuals. We found that 54 types of biosensors have been used for real-time and computer-assisted rehabilitation systems. The findings suggest that there are still some body parts (such as the muscle tendons area and abdomen) and application areas (e.g., post- and pre-pregnancy) that have not yet been targeted by biosensor-supported medical rehabilitation systems aided by suitable hardware, software, and other assistive technologies.