Towards the Development of Tele-rehabilitation System based on Virtual Reality Environment and Cloud Service

Abstract

Tele-rehabilitation (TR) is an emerging concept that aims to deliver heath care service through telecommunication and the Internet. Network speed has been sharply increased over decades and South Korea has been named as a country where not only the Internet connection is most widely available nationwide, but also the Internet connection speed is averagely fastest in the World. This creates an opportunity to help people who have limited access to healthcare service due to barriers such as ambulatory issues, costs to travel, and long distance by deploying TR system in remote areas. Recently, three sets of TR system were deployed at Soonchunhyang University and two independent living centers in Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. The system offers (1) health record management; (2) motion analysis; (3) interactive rehabilitation trainings; and (4) rehabilitation games. Additionally, this system is capable of video conferencing that enables tele-consultation (TC). In this study, further details of the system and strategies to utilize such a system will be described.