Visualization of the rehabilitation therapy process for post-amputation patients in performing virtual ball-catching movements through metaverse technology, initiated by ITS students team

ITS Campus, ITS News – Technological developments have helped the health sector, especially rehabilitation therapy for post-amputation patients. In order
to support this idea, a team of students from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) innovated a rehabilitation therapy method that was integrated with metaverse technology for post-amputation patients.

Epidonta Ginting, a team leader, said that rehabilitation therapy is a method of treating patients to restore bodily functions that have been injured or have been amputated. This therapy must be done routinely for six months by moving the limbs that are not amputated. “However, this therapy is still considered ineffective because it requires patients to come to the hospital so that patients will get bored,” he said.

ITS PKM VGK Team at the 35th Pimnas 2022 consists of (from left) Epidonta Ginting, Akila Kumalasari, Rizqullah Irwanto, Galih Sukma Adjie, and Izzah Awwalin

Overcoming this, the student who is usually called Epin and his team innovated to create a rehabilitation therapy method that was integrated with metaverse technology. He explained, the patients will undergo rehabilitation therapy with doctors virtually through the metaverse. Therefore, patients will not have to come to the hospital to undergo rehabilitation. “In our innovation, rehabilitation is specifically for post-amputation patients of the upper body,” he said.

Epin explained, the patient will initially meet the doctor virtually in the metaverse using virtual reality (VR) glasses. Furthermore, the patient will move the arm or limb that is not amputated to measure nerve signals and muscle movement responses using an Electromyography (EMG) device. Later on, these nerve signals and muscle movements will be visualized virtually by the Motion Tracking tool.

Rehabilitation therapy with this virtual method is considered to have higher effectiveness than the old method. Epin revealed, this therapy was able to visualize arm muscle movements and other movements accurately to speed up patient rehabilitation. “Besides, there are features such as audio and vibration to support the recovery of the patient’s hand motor and psychological functions,” he emphasized.

Epidonta Ginting (center) with his team while conducting research and experiments on a patient after an upper arm amputation

The student fromthe Department of Mechanical Engineering explained his reasons for using the metaverse technology in this innovation. According to him, in virtual metaverse world, patients can get the sensation of using real hands to be able to speed up the recovery process. In addition, patients and doctors can interact and move actively, so it is believed to increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation therapy.

The innovation which is called as Metatherapy was initiated by ITS Constructive Idea Video (VGK) of Student Creativity Program (PKM) team consisting of Epidonta Ginting, Galih Sukma Adjie, Rizqullah Irwanto, Izzah Awwalin, and Akila Kumalasari. Through this solutive idea, this team also won a silver medal in the National Student Scientific Week (Pimnas) 2022. Epin hopes that his team’s innovation can be realized in order to be able to provide an easy rehabilitation for post-amputation patients in the future. (ITS Public Relations)

Reporter: Regy Zaid Zakaria