Hands, tables and groups make rehabilitation awesome!

Technology has helped improve rehabilitation programs by providing patients with engaging alternatives to otherwise monotonous and repetitive exercises. In recent years, therapists have looked towards multi-touch technologies to further enhance patient rehabilitation programs. So far, the focus has mainly been on single-user interaction, largely ignoring many of the benefits patients receive from socially interacting with therapists, caregivers and their peers. To make use of these valuable interactions, we have developed a suite of multi-touch activities for motor and cognitive rehabilitation. These applications can easily be adjusted to meet the needs of individual patients and enable therapists to quantitatively measure patient behavior and performance. We also reflect on design-related discussions we had with practicing occupational therapists and provide a set of design considerations to guide future rehabilitation activities.