Benefits of WIM

Providing personalised therapy.

Thanks to data collected by the armband, WIM is able to offer a new type of personalised therapy constantly adapting excursuses to the level of the patient. Compared to the current situation at home where stroke patients lack continuous follow-ups with a therapist, WIM will be able to provide a more efficient rehabilitation supporting and challenging you all the way.

In the comfort of your home.

WIM gives freedom of mobility to patients and enables them to reach their goals and fully recover in the comfort of their own home. Today's market does not provide any tools to practice motor skills efficiently outside the rehab environment. The patients are forced to train with wooden puzzles pieces at a uninspiring and stigmatising table at the rehabilitation centres.

Therapy made fun.

By adding personality to WIM, the user will connect on a personal level, almost as you would with a pet. WIM is "living" in your home, making sounds to grab your attention and you can never really be sure what to expect during training sessions. This makes the therapy fun and interesting throughout the lengthy time of home recovery.

Non-stigmatising.

It was important for us to design a non-stigmatising product since the patients are feeling extremely vulnerable in this condition as it is. The use of carefully chosen materials and colours allows WIM to be a discreet piece visually blending into your home environment. The fabric made armband is soft, comfortable and easy to wear underneath clothing. In combination with WIM's personality, it is a therapy device to be proud of.

A new type of therapy

Mindful reminders.

WIM reminds you when it is a suitable time to resume the training at several moments throughout the day. It takes for example certain times of the day into consideration well as how you behaved last time to keep you as motivated as possible. It lights up and generates sounds and vibrations to get your attention. When you pick it up, WIM welcomes you with a happy indication sound expressing excitement of your return.

Training with WIM.

When picking up WIM, it turns into game mode: It will start one pulsating light and up to four static lights. Once you have found the pulsating light, place your thumb on top. This is to guide the user into the correct starting position. Next, place the remaining fingers along the static lights and press. If you placed all fingers correct WIM will indicate your success with sound and vibration. If your fingers are misplaced WIM will give you a short error sound and vibration. Just enough for you to try again. Beginners can choose to have the strap attached to avoid dropping it during sessions.

Therapy aspects.

At each stage of the game-therapy WIM wants you to search for lights. For many stroke patients this is difficult. Their visual field might be impaired as well as haptic senses. Furthermore, the search process challenge movements from shoulder to wrist whereas stretching for and tapping the light strengthens the fine motor skills in the hand and fingers. To adapt to the patient's level WIM measures the task time. position accuracy, applied pressure and movement speed. WIM can steer how many fingers you need to place, how much force you need to apply and how much time you have to complete the task. This makes the therapy continuously challenging in order for the patient to push him/herself.

Technology

The armband.

The armband is made of soft materials that stretch and comfortably nestle on the skin. Unlike a traditional wearable the armband is able to measure, record and analyse muscle activity in the arm throughout the day. Through tiny electrodes on the inner side, the armband can detect electrical muscle activity and evaluate it in a press called electromyography (EMG). Together with the readout of the integrated motion sensors (accelerometer), a gyroscope and magnetometer - WIM can analyse and interpret hand and finger motion. This enables the patient to get personalised feedback in the end of the day. By double tapping on the top part of the band, five LED lights will light up indicating ho often the arm was actively used.

The training buddy, WIM.

WIM is equipped with motion sensors that share their data with the armband. One of the core features we focused on, is WIM's pet-like personality. It is enabled through an integrated light emitting diode system, a sound system and vibration motors providing a force feedback system. A small computer unit as well as an integrated battery empower WIM's flexibility and mobility.

Connected synergy effects.

The passive and the interactive products are constantly connected. They share and analyse the flow of incoming data. If used together it enables the user to train playfully, improve, record, analyse and receive progress feedback. All these aspects will help to motivate the patient to stay focused and regain the uppe limb abilities in a short amount of time.

Our design process

WIM emerged in a course at Umeå Institute of Design in collaboration with the Swedish corporation ABB, focusing on the future of collaborative robotics. During our initial research phase we learned that computer enabled rehab robots can easily help to carry out repetitive tasks. We saw this as an inspiration with potential for the rehabilitation context.

Eye opening research visits and analysis.

To get insights into the daily activities of patients and therapists we visited the Neuro RehabilitationCenter in Sävarand the hospital Stroke Center in Umeå. During these visits we got valuable information about the procedures of care andtherapy which triggered us evenmore to raise awareness about thismedical field.

Wefound out that the market offers robotic arms designed for the stroke rehabilitation field. However, those are manly focusing on muscle function when they should be focusing on brain stimulation. To add to this, we realised that most of the rehabilitation training in Sweden is done in a rehabilitation environment the first week after the strokeoccurred. So our focus shifted to enable stroke therapy in the home environment and to narrow down the scope we decided to design for upper limb impairments.

Ideation phase.

We held a workshop with designers and continued with 2D ideation to identify three concept directions. We saw most potential in a concept using technology to track hand motions to be analysed and then able to adjust the therapy continuously. At this point we decided to design an interactive system for home training that consisted of a passive hand tracking device and an active training module. The ideas were translated into 3D prototypes and digital sound files tested with people in a "Wizard of Oz" test.

With the outcome of the test, initial sketches and prototypes we went back to the therapists to evaluate and get feedback. The outcome was very much appreciated so we focused further on the user interaction and training itself to refine the user experience and complete the system.

Prototyping a virtual buddy.

We spend the next phase of the project to adress the sensory experience and characteristic behaviour of WIM, the active training module. We designed vibration rhythms through Arduino programming, created a suitable sound library for a responsive, life like feeling, and built several Arduino powered prototypes with various light patterns for different interactions.

Building the prototypes we learned to how to refine the training aspect of WIM. Through CAD and rapid prototyping techniques, wire soldering and Arduino programming we eventually created a functional prototype.

The final step was to refine the brand experience, service and with that the interactive app environment that would accompany the physical products. All of this came together in a movie we explored through storyboards.

Final feedback from the professionals.

With the final project outcome, we went back to our experts that supported us with feedback throughout the project. We presented in front of ABB and several therapists and left with positive feedback and questions when the product would make it to market.