The project SmartRehab, an automated telerehabilitation solution using artificial intelligence technology on smart devices, won a Gold Medal with the Congratulations of the Jury at the 49th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva. This was a joint project between the Sport AI Laboratory of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the Stroke Research and Prevention Group (HKU Stroke) of the Department of Medicine, HKUMed, under the support of the Innovation Technology Fund for Better Living.
SmartRehab is a telerehabilitation solution that enables personalized service to users during the pandemic and beyond. It is a digital platform that revolutionizes physiotherapy and occupational therapy by employing the power of artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies. It brings these services directly to one’s home, offering detailed instructions and AI-facilitated feedback to enhance training performance.
^ The exhibit and the gold medal in the 49th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva
Dr. Wilton Fok, the Director of HKU Sport AI Laboratory (HKU SAIL), said, “This is a good opportunity for our team to work with medical doctors and professionals to apply innovative technologies to help patients’ recovery through sports and rehabilitation exercises.” Dr. Gary Lau, the Director of HKU Stroke, said, “We are very excited to work with EEE to develop this platform and to have the support of the World Stroke Organization to further test the feasibility of our platform in seven countries beyond Hong Kong.”
^ The project team members (from left): Dr. Wilton Fok, Ms. Carol Chen, Prof. Gary Lau, Ms. Ada Tse, Mr. Will Lam, Mr. Elton Yeung
About SmartRehab
SmartRehab is a mobile application accessible from a tablet or smartphone that aims to facilitate personalized stroke rehabilitation in the community setting. It was developed and validated by a multidisciplinary team comprising neurologists, engineers, translational neuroscientists, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists from HKU Stroke, HKU SAIL, and the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation (HKSR).
^ A patient using the SmartRehab platform on a tablet device.
These exercises are recommended and designed by therapists from the HKSR and are tailored specifically for stroke patients to improve upper limb functions, weight shift, and balance. In contrast to traditional telerehabilitation platforms, SmartRehab utilizes the built-in RGB camera of a tablet or smartphone, for which the team has developed a computer vision-based pose-estimation algorithm to predict the precise body framework and segment key joint locations. The system allows SmartRehab to compute movement-related features, including changes in joint angles, velocity, and the presence of spastic movements, all of which can be used to evaluate the quality of a patient’s movements and provide immediate feedback. SmartRehab also includes a portal system in which therapists can assess the patients and prescribe exercises (including the type of exercises, difficulty levels, frequencies, and number of repetitions) tailored to the needs of each patient and remotely monitor the patients’ functional and motor performance, progress, and compliance.