A virtual reality-based system for hand function analysis

The goal of this study was to demonstrate the usability and usefulness of virtual reality technology in assessing hand functions. Ten healthy, non-disabled right-handed adult volunteers were recruited. Each volunteer used a dataglove to insert three-dimensional virtual representations of a cylinder and a prism into the target holes. To verify the reliability of the tests, each subject was retested twice. The performance testing assessed the visual-motor coordination a person needs to achieve a task accurately and within a set time. For each trial, the root mean square (RMS) value of the hand movement trajectory was projected onto the X, Y, and Z axes. This projection enabled us to measure the extent of the genuine, summative displacement of the manipulating hand. The reproducibility of the virtual reality assessment was analyzed using the intraclass correlation (ICC) approach. The total ICC values of 10 subjects demonstrated a high task completion time and RMS on the X and Z axes for the transferring of the prism. However, the values were low for the transferring of the cylinder. Because the individual coefficients of variations (CVs) varied widely in the moving of both the cylinder and the prism, the total (CVs) showed a high reading for the task completion time. Although rehabilitation clinics routinely carry out peg-moving exercises for disabled patients, our model provides a valuable quantitative real time and off-line measure of whole hand functions.