This device can help paralysed people exercise easily - Read

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Researchers have come up with a novel device that can act as a physiotherapist and help paralysed people exercise easily.

Arm weaknesses impairs people's ability to carry out daily activities and requires expensive long-term care.

The low-cost device, with the trade name gripAble, consists of a lightweight electronic handgrip, which interacts wirelessly with a standard PC tablet to enable the user to play arm-training games. 

"The use of mobile-gaming could provide a cost-effective and easily available means to improve the arm movements of stroke patients," said lead researcher Paul Bentley, senior lecturer at Imperial College, London.

To use it, patients squeeze, turn or lift the handgrip, and it vibrates in response to their performance whilst playing.

The device uses a novel mechanism, which can detect the tiny flicker movements of severely paralysed patients and channel them into controlling a computer game, the researchers said.

The device improves arm and cognitive function of patients who have mild to severe arm weaknesses and can also be used unsupervised in hospitals and independently by patients at home, Bentley added.

(With IANS inputs)