Welcome to SMART 1

Smart Panel

This is a joint project with partners from Sheffield Hallam University, University of Bath, University of Essex, University of Ulster and the Stroke Association. The project started in November 2003 and completed in December 2006. It is funded with £690,000 from The EPSRC EQUAL (Extend Quality Life) initiative. http://www.fp.rdg.ac.uk/equal/.

The aim of the project is to explore how technology might be used to facilitate active in-home rehabilitation for people following stroke. Users, carers and clinical stroke therapists were an integral part of the project from an initial scoping of need through to the testing new iterations of the SMART system as it developed.

As a result of a review of the existing literature and knowledge base, and an accompanying feasibility study of various technologies, the researchers identified orientation sensors accompanied by a decision support interface (TV or computer screen) as potential technology for stroke rehabilitation. This equipment was also considered to be appropriate for use in people's own homes.

The orientation sensors can measure the orientation of an object without the need for expensive camera equipment and body markers commonly used in research labs and clinical gait laboratories.

Orientations sensors are often used in sport. For our research the devices are attached to the wrist and upper arm using clothing resembling sports wear. When the user undertakes arm movements prescribed by a trained therapist, the sensors are able to track this movement. The movement made by the user is then recorded and displayed on a computer or TV screen.

The contents of the decision support interface have been tailored so that the user is able to receive meaningful feedback about their progress. The therapists who have prescribed the rehabilitative interventions are also able to obtain feedback about the user's progress at another location such as a hospital or primary care setting.

Extensive and on-going work with people who have experienced stroke and practitioners in stroke rehabilitation has enabled the researchers to test and adapt the technology over time. This has involved ensuring the accuracy of the data the orientation sensors provide, determining the best methods of attaching the equipment to the user and identifying how users and therapists would like the information about progress provided to them. At the end of the project a prototype was evaluated in a series of case studies with stroke survivors using the SMART system in their own homes.

In collaboration with Philips Research Scientists the SMART consortia is taking this proof-of-concept work forwards to develop a technology that can be tested in a clinical trial. For details of this further work please see the TARGET site.

* The Codamotion system has been used in the tracking and characterisation of arm movements for the SMART project and the company have provided expert advice from the start regarding 3D biomechanics, hosted project meetings and carried out extensive analysis of data, as well as developing and providing software tools for use by project team members http://www.codamotion.com