Usability Validation of a Parallel Bar Device with Vibrating Stimulus for Neuropathologies Treatment

EasyChair Preprint 9888

Abstract

Neurological diseases are usually associated to motor functions impairment, such as gait and balance implication. In general, rehabilitation aims to provide performance gain on daily live activities. The use of whole-body vibrations allied to conven-tional treatment has been increasing. It is suggested that vibra-tions increase the sensory afferents excitability, contributing to gait, balance and proprioception, in addition to decreasing spasticity. Among the vibrating platforms used for this pur-pose, a vibrating device that allows walking on it was selected, enabling the performance of static or dynamic vibratory proto-cols. With this equipment, improvement opportunities were identified then motivated its retrofit. The changes were made aiming the robustness increase, better mass distribution and the development of an intuitive HMI. Besides the engineering tests, considerations about user interaction with the equipment and technology are essential. Usability testing addresses as-pects that allow evaluating the implications of the applied technology for the user. In this sense, in order to verify the effectiveness of the retrofit for the user. In this way, a usability test was performed with professionals through the SUS scale. The test was applied to five physiotherapists, resulting on 97.5 points average evaluation. This grade suggests the device clas-sification as the ”Best Imaginable”. Regarding the SUS evalua-tion, it is suggested that execution of static and dynamic proto-cols is feasible, since, according to the professional evaluation and considerations, the device can be used to perform neuro-pathological patients protocol.

Keyphrases: Gait and balance rehabilitation, Neuropathologies, Usability validation, Vibrating platform, Whole body vibrations

@booklet{EasyChair:9888,
  author    = {Antonio Morais and Silvia Boschi and Luan Moura and Yasmim Moniz and Silvia Martini and Terigi Scardovelli and Alessandro Silva},
  title     = {Usability Validation of a Parallel Bar Device with Vibrating Stimulus for Neuropathologies Treatment},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 9888},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2023}}