A surface electromyography based serious game for increasing patient participation to physiotherapy and rehabilitation treatment following anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments operations

Abstract

This study presents a surface electromyography (sEMG) based serious computer game for increasing physiotherapy patients' motivations throughout post-op exercises. The study focuses on exercises which are recommended after Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) operations. The proposed system is a computer game, where the exercises are transformed into game activities and monitored by collecting surface electromyography signals using BITalino that is a wearable data acquisition board. This game system provides a goal-oriented exercise training to the patient. The system records the patients performance; the stars he/she collected and the number of exercise activities so that the physiotherapists will be able to follow the status and any improvement of their patients.