Usability of an Immersive Augmented Reality Based Telerehabilitation System with Haptics (ARTESH) for Synchronous Remote Musculoskeletal Examination

Authors

  • Aleks Borresen University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Cody Wolfe University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Chung-Kuang Lin University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4811-7473
  • Yuan Tian The University of Texas at Dallas
  • Suraj Raghuraman The University of Texas at Dallas
  • Klara Nahrstedt University of Illinois
  • Balakrishnan Prabhakaran The University of Texas at Dallas
  • Thiru Annaswamy University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, VA North Texas Health Care System

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2019.6275

Keywords:

Augmented-reality, Haptics, Telerehabilitation, Telemedicine

Abstract

This study describes the features and utility of a novel augmented reality based telemedicine system with haptics that allows the sense of touch and direct physical examination during a synchronous immersive telemedicine consultation and physical examination. The system employs novel engineering features: (a) a new force enhancement algorithm to improve force rendering and overcoming the “just-noticeable-difference” limitation; (b) an improved force compensation method to reduce the delay in force rendering; (c) use of the “haptic interface point” to reduce disparity between the visual and haptic data; and (d) implementation of efficient algorithms to process, compress, decompress, transmit and render 3-D tele-immersion data. A qualitative pilot study (n=20) evaluated the usability of the system. Users rated the system on a 26-question survey using a seven-point Likert scale, with percent agreement calculated from the total users who agreed with a given statement. Survey questions fell into three main categories: (1) ease and simplicity of use, (2) quality of experience, and (3) comparison to in-person evaluation. Average percent agreements between the telemedicine and in-person evaluation were highest for ease and simplicity of use (86%) and quality of experience (85%), followed by comparison to in-person evaluation (58%). Eighty-nine percent (89%) of respondents expressed satisfaction with the overall quality of experience. Results suggest that the system was effective at conveying audio-visual and touch data in real-time across 20.3 miles, and warrants further development.

 

  

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Published

2019-06-12

How to Cite

Borresen, A., Wolfe, C., Lin, C.-K., Tian, Y., Raghuraman, S., Nahrstedt, K., Prabhakaran, B., & Annaswamy, T. (2019). Usability of an Immersive Augmented Reality Based Telerehabilitation System with Haptics (ARTESH) for Synchronous Remote Musculoskeletal Examination. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 11(1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2019.6275

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2019)

Section

Research

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